An Israeli attack hit an apartment building in Beirut's Kola neighborhood, while dozens of Hezbollah targets were hit in Lebanon's Bekaa region. And Tel Aviv is preparing the land operation: the invasion of the country seems inevitable. On Monday, September 30, an Israeli drone targeted an apartment where two members of the Lebanese Islamic group Jamaa Islamiya were staying. This is the first time Israel has carried out attacks inside the walls of Beirut since 2006. At least 33 people were killed in attacks in the regional town of Hermel, out of a total of more than 105 people. killed by Israel in the last 24 hours. in Lebanon.
The Israeli attack on Beirut
The attack hit a property located in a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. Three leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine died. It was the organization itself which announced it, as reported by local media. According to Sky News Arabic, the members killed in the attack were Muhammad Abdel Aal, head of the PFLP's military security department, Imad Awda, PFLP military commander in Lebanon, and Abdul Rahman Abdel Aal. Television images showed the partially razed floor of the building targeted by the incursion in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Kola, near the road linking the capital to Beirut airport.
The bombings
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Hakr al-Jamì neighborhood of Deir el-Balah, killing a woman and her son. “Over the past hours – announced the Israeli army – fighter jets attacked dozens of terrorist targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Bekaa region of Lebanon. Other attacks were carried out in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, chairman of the Senate Air Force subcommittee on Armed Services, revealed that Israel used a US guided weapon to kill Nasrallah. According to Kelly, Israel used a 900 kg (2,000 lb) Mark 84 series bomb.
The targeted assassination of Nasrallah
“We are seeing increased use of guided munitions, Jdams, and we continue to provide those weapons,” Kelly said, using the abbreviation for joint direct attack munitions. “The 2,000-pound bomb used to eliminate Nasrallah is a Mark 84 series bomb,” he said. The Washington Post initially reported the use of American ammunition. The newspaper wrote Sunday that at least some of the bombs were U.S.-made “BLU-109 and JDAM guidance kits.” BLU-109s are bunker busting bombs and JDAM kits are guidance systems that attach to munitions to help engage a specific target. According to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts research and analysis on defense policy, a 2,000-pound bomb has a kill radius of 35 meters (115 feet).
The land invasion
Meanwhile, the army prepares the ground invasion of Lebanon. Several brigades from Gaza arrived at the northern border with the Land of Cedars. General Halevi, immediately after the raid that led to Nasrallah's death, emphasized “the high level of preparedness in attack and defense on all fronts.” Miri Eisin, director of the International Counterterrorism Institute at Reichman University in Herzliya, told the Jerusalem PressClub that “the ground operation is not a simple thing. Because despite the blows dealt to Hezbollah, we must not underestimate this group, created to survive even its leaders. Then there is the Iranian problem. Let us not forget that during the raid in which Nasrallah was killed, Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, also suffered the same fate. »
Three types
The press explains today that the ground operation could take place in three phases. A few isolated operations with specific objectives, a larger one to strike in force the positions of the Radwan elite which has numerous bases in the South, a third with a total invasion. Some small missions on Lebanese territory have been carried out in recent months and also in recent hours. Vanessa Newby, professor at the Institute for Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, said: The conversation that Hezbollah, however, is prepared to engage in attrition with hit-and-run tactics if the army makes the mistake of entering Beirut.
The risks of failure
“The fact that the previous five invasions failed should indicate that the outcome could be a repeat of what happened between 1982 and 2006. Let us not forget that Israel has a history of military adventures in Lebanon that does not only helped to convince his opponents more strongly in the long term,” Newby explained.
And again: “It is naive for Israel to think that an invasion or bombing campaign, however effective it may be in the short term, will allow Israeli civilians to live in peace along the Blue Line in the long term. term. The only way out is diplomatic. The human cost of Israel's current strategy in Lebanon is frightening to imagine. And that will most likely create even more hatred. Nurturing a new generation of anti-Israeli fighters, rather than creating the foundations for lasting peace. »
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