The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Nasrallah’s presumed successor said to be target of heavy Israeli strike in Beirut
The target of the heavy Israeli airstrike in Beirut is reported to be Hashem Safieddine.
Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, is presumed to be the successor of Hassan Nasrallah following his assassination last week.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid cites two Israeli sources as saying Safieddine was the target.
The IDF has not yet commented on the strike.
الضاحية بحمى الرحمن ????
pic.twitter.com/bklIN97Vlr— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) October 3, 2024
IDF and Shin Bet says Tulkarem airstrike targeted head of local Hamas terror network
The head of a Hamas terror network in Tulkarem, along with several other operatives, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank this evening, the IDF and Shin Bet say.
According to the military, the airstrike carried out by a fighter jet in Tulkarem targeted Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a top Hamas commander in Tulkarem who was planning a terror attack “in the immediate time frame.”
Oufi planned and led an attempted car bombing attack near the settlement of Ateret last month, the IDF says.
He was also involved in providing weapons to other terror operatives who carried out numerous attacks in the West Bank and in Israel recently, including those that led to the injury of Israeli civilians, according to the military.
The IDF and Shin Bet add that he “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks.”
“[He] intended to carry out an attack in the immediate time frame,” and therefore the strike was carried out, the IDF says.
Several more terror operatives in the same Hamas network were killed in the strike, according to the IDF. The Palestinian Authority health ministry says that at least 18 people were killed.
The IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes in the West Bank in the past year, but mostly with drones and helicopters, rarely with fighter jets.
Source close to Hezbollah: Israel launched 11 consecutive strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs
BEIRUT — A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah says Israel has conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the terror group’s south Beirut stronghold, with AFP correspondents in the capital and beyond hearing the loud bangs.
“Israel struck the southern suburbs 11 consecutivetimes,” the source says on the condition of anonymity. The bombardment was so intense that car alarms went off and buildings shook in Beirut and its outskirts.
Israeli strike said to hit outside perimeter of Beirut airport as loud explosions heard
BEIRUT — A series of loud explosions are heard near Lebanon’s Beirut airport, with smoke seen nearby after jets were heard overhead, Reuters witnesses say.
At least one Israeli strike hit outside the perimeter of the airport, according to a source in Lebanon’s ministry of transport and public works.
حزام ناري يفرضه الطيران الحربي الإسرائيلي على الضاحية الجنوبية لبيروت بسبب الهجمات الجوية المستمرة وسط تصاعد التوتر pic.twitter.com/HMX7YVzLO5
— Lebanon Debate (@lebanondebate) October 3, 2024