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Second Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Beirut | Avi Melamed’s insights quoted in this article by Brendan Cole Senior News Reporter for NEWSWEEK
Former Israeli intelligence officer, Avi Melamed, told Newsweek that this week’s events meant that Hezbollah had to choose between maintaining fire risking a wider conflict or considering striking a deal to allow residents of northern Israel to return to their homes.̉
However, Melamed said this would be tough for Hezbollah to agree to given the 11 months of crossfire with Israel and the statements by the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah that it would only cease after an agreement is in place with Hamas.
Two Hezbollah commanders were among 37 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, it has been reported, dealing a blow to the Iranian-backed group’s leadership amid fears that hostilities could spiral into an all-out regional war.
Hezbollah said Ibrahim Akil, who headed its elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander were killed in Friday’s strikes, The Associated Press reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had targeted an underground gathering of the group’s military leaders, killing 16 Hezbollah members, 12 senior commanders. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that three children and seven women were among the dead.
The rush-hour attack on an apartment block was the deadliest in the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Akil was the main target and had been wanted by the U.S. over the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and in taking hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s, according to the AP.
Wahbi had played major roles within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in south Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” of a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead, the AP reported
The IDF said that the strike had “almost completely dismantled” Hezbollah’s military chain of command. On Saturday, cross-border strikes continued with Israeli warplanes bombarding Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah saying that its rocket attacks had hit military targets in Israel’s north.
Israel has recently said it was expanding its objectives for the war in Gaza, prompted by the Hamas October 7 attack, to include returning 60,000 evacuated residents of northern Israel, which is regularly targeted by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leadership faced a humiliating security breach when pagers and walkie-talkies allegedly used by members detonated, killing and maiming their owners but also hitting civilians. On Saturday, the total death toll of those attacks rose to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured. The attacks were believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Former Israeli intelligence officer, Avi Melamed, told Newsweek that this week’s events meant that Hezbollah had to choose between maintaining fire risking a wider conflict or considering striking a deal to allow residents of northern Israel to return to their homes.
It also might see Iran pressuring Hamas to accept a deal to end the war in Gaza and to return the rest of the hostages it took during the October 7 attacks which killed 1,200 people.
“Another option could be for Hezbollah to bifurcate itself from Hamas’ war, step back from the brink, and enter into a separate diplomatic arrangement with Israel only covering the skirmish on the north,” he said.
However, Melamed said this would be tough for Hezbollah to agree to given the 11 months of crossfire with Israel and the statements by the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah that it would only cease after an agreement is in place with Hamas.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert said Friday’s strike by Israel on Beirut was part of “an extremely dangerous cycle of violence with devastating consequences” and “must stop now.”
On Saturday, at least 22 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Zeitoun, Gaza City, according to the AP, citing health officials in the territory. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 41,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon and that he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but Washington is “not at a point right now where we’re prepared to put something on the table.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Israeli Foreign Ministry for comment.
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said that the White House was “privately waving a white flag” rather than “considering how to use the United States’ immense leverage to secure a ceasefire.”
In condemning the attacks on electronic devices in Lebanon, the NIAC said in an emailed statement to Newsweek that they “further weaken the Biden administration’s struggling efforts” to prevent a wider war.
Second Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Beirut | Avi Melamed’s insights quoted in this article by Brendan Cole Senior News Reporter for NEWSWEEK
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