Israel
Kills a Top Commander of Hezbollah, Which Replies With a Rocket Barrage
The
escalation in violence across the border of Israel and Lebanon came as Western
diplomats tried to head off a full-fledged war there.
Hezbollah
said it had fired 100 rockets at military targets over the border with Israel
as part of an “initial response” to the drone strike that killed a top
commander.
Euan Ward Thomas Fuller
By Euan Ward
and Thomas Fuller
July 3, 2024
Israeli
forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday in a drone strike in
southern Lebanon, prompting the Lebanese militia to retaliate with a heavy
rocket barrage across the border.
The flare-up
came as Western diplomats worked to avoid a full-scale war between Israel and
Hezbollah, a danger that appears to have grown in recent weeks. Cross-border
exchanges of fire have intensified, and Israeli officials have publicly spoken
of shifting their military focus from Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Hezbollah, a
far more advanced and potent threat.
Amos
Hochstein, a senior White House adviser who has become the de facto U.S. envoy
in tamping down the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, conferred on Wednesday with
French officials in Paris to discuss how to defuse the rising tensions.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, President Emmanuel Macron’s special envoy to Lebanon, was
among the people with whom he met, according to a person close to the talks,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
The Israeli
military said its drone strike had killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, also known as
Abu Naameh, who was among the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighters to die in
nearly nine months of conflict, according to a senior Lebanese intelligence
official, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. He said Mr.
Nasser had led Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, one of the group’s main fighting forces
along the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah
confirmed his death, and though it did not explicitly say how he had died, the
group said it had fired 100 rockets at military targets over the border as part
of an “initial response,” setting off sirens in communities across northern
Israel. The Israeli military said that most of that barrage had fallen in open
areas, but Hezbollah continued to claim retaliatory attacks into the evening.
In
solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah, which is closely tied to Iran, has greatly
increased the pace of its periodic attacks on northern Israel since the war in
Gaza began in October. Israel has retaliated with strikes in Lebanon.
The killing
of Mr. Naameh in a drone strike in the Tyre area on the western coast was the
latest in a string of Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah commanders in
Lebanon. One last month led to an escalation in the fighting that the Biden
administration has since struggled to contain. With tensions already high,
analysts and Western diplomats have warned that the tit-for-tat strikes could
lead to further escalation.
Amal Saad, a
lecturer at Cardiff University who researches Hezbollah, said that the powerful
militia would not allow itself to be dragged into an all-out war over the
killing, but that recent threats by Israeli officials would not deter Hezbollah
from responding with strength.
“I don’t
think Hezbollah will downplay this,” Ms. Saad said, adding that the rocket
barrage was only “a small teaser of what is to come.”
The conflict
between Israel and Hezbollah has so far remained fairly contained, but the
fighting has already displaced more than 150,000 people on both sides of the
border. If a full-scale war were to break out, analysts said, it would very
likely prove catastrophic, leaving swaths of Lebanon in ruins, prompting
Hezbollah to unleash its arsenal of precision-guided missiles on cities across
Israel, and potentially setting off a wider regional war involving Iran.
Israel’s military leadership is seeking a cease-fire with Hamas in case a
larger war breaks out in Lebanon, according to Israeli security officials.
U.S.
officials have worked for months to prevent a war between Israel and Hezbollah.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that Israel “has
effectively lost sovereignty” near the border with Lebanon because Hezbollah
attacks launched from across the border had driven much of the population from
their homes. Some 60,000 Israelis have fled the area, many of whom have been
living in Tel Aviv hotels for the past nine months.
In his
remarks on Monday, Mr. Blinken noted that Hezbollah had said that if a
cease-fire were reached in Gaza, it would stop firing into Israel. That
“underscores why a cease-fire in Gaza is so critical,” he said.
The
cease-fire talks have been deadlocked since June, but officials said Wednesday
that mediators were working to revive them, focusing on terms based on a
proposal backed by the United Nations and the United States.
For months,
Israel and Hamas, which do not talk directly with each other, have negotiated
through mediators, including Qatar and Egypt, over a potential deal for a
three-stage truce in Gaza and the release of the remaining 120 living and dead
hostages held there. However, wide gaps remained on key issues.
Last
Tuesday, Qatar sent Hamas new potential amendments to the proposed deal in an
effort to win over its support, according to two senior officials from
different countries involved in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of
anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.
The main
stumbling blocks remain: Hamas, which controlled Gaza before the conflict,
wants an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, while Israel
has vowed to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed and seeks control over
postwar security in Gaza.
Current and
former security officials in Israel say the country’s top generals want to
start a cease-fire in Gaza even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being.
Israel’s generals see their forces being stretched thin, in both soldiers and
munitions, as the war drags on. They believe the military needs time to
recuperate in case a ground war with Hezbollah breaks out, the officials said.
Israel’s
defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Wednesday that Israeli forces were
prepared to take any action necessary against Hezbollah, but that they
preferred a diplomatic settlement.
“We are
striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full
readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement
from a position of strength,” said Mr. Gallant, according to a statement from
his office.
“We prefer
an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight,” he added.
Michael
Crowley, Ronen Bergman, Aaron Boxerman, Patrick Kingsley and Johnatan Reiss
contributed reporting.
Euan Ward is
a reporter contributing to The Times from Beirut. More about Euan Ward
Thomas
Fuller, a Page One Correspondent for The Times, writes and rewrites stories for
the front page. More about Thomas Fuller
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