BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched dozens of rockets at military positions in northern Israel on Wednesday in response to the assassination of its senior field commander, Hussein Ibrahim Makki.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire since the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
Israel claimed Makki was considered close to Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard who was assassinated by Israel in Damascus last April.
Hezbollah said it attacked “the headquarters of the 91st Division in the Biranit Barracks with heavy Burkan missiles, achieving a direct hit and destroying part of it, and the headquarters of the Air Surveillance Unit at Meron Base with tens of Katyusha rockets, heavy missiles, and artillery shells, hitting its previous and newly acquired equipment, and disabling part of it completely.”
The party added it had targeted “the newly established technical systems and espionage equipment at Al-Radar site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with appropriate weapons, causing direct hits and their destruction.”
On Tuesday night, Israeli warplanes targeted a car in the city of Tyre with two missiles, leading to the deaths of Makki and two of his companions.
Makki was described as a “massive databank” and a “strong arm” of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Syria. He was from the town of Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon.
Israeli radio spoke of a “large-scale attack from Lebanese territory” and that “the rocket fire on the Meron Base does not stop.”
Other Israeli media outlets said the volley of 50 rockets was the most intense attack since the beginning of the war with Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelled Jabal Balat and Israeli warplanes shelled an unoccupied house on the outskirts of Aitarun.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah shot down an Israeli espionage balloon over the border town of Rmeish.
Israel has stepped up its targeting of Hezbollah field commanders over the past two weeks, particularly focusing on leaders within the party’s elite Radwan Brigade.
These targeted assassinations coincide with Israel’s heightened policy of the systematic destruction of border and front-line villages, part of a strategy framed as “displacing the population of the south in exchange for displacing the population of the north.”
Israeli media outlets reported that the north was experiencing significant losses and damage. More than 140 houses were destroyed in the settlement of Metula, with most of the damage caused by Hezbollah anti-tank missiles. Similar destruction had been witnessed in other settlements along the Lebanese border, said media reports, and five soldiers were injured in Adamit on Tuesday.
Lebanon is deeply concerned about the potential expansion of conflict in south, especially as diplomatic efforts to separate the southern front from the Gaza Strip have failed.
Additionally, there is Lebanese apprehension about the ongoing presence of 2.1 million Syrian refugees on its territory.
The Lebanese parliament has discussed the refugee issue and the potential acceptance of a €1 billion grant from the EU to host refugees.
It unanimously approved a recommendation to form a ministerial committee that would engage with international and regional parties to develop a comprehensive plan and timed program for refugees’ return, excluding cases protected by Lebanese law, as determined by the committee.
The MPs said that the issue had “become increasingly complex and dangerous, impacting Lebanon economically, financially, socially and environmentally, with growing concerns among the Lebanese people about demographic and societal changes.”
They stressed Lebanon was “ill-prepared constitutionally, legally or realistically to be a country of asylum.”
The MPs also mandated the Lebanese authorities to take necessary legal measures to hand over prisoners among the refugees to the Syrian authorities, under applicable laws and principles.
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Hezbollah strikes Israel after death of senior field commander
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Hezbollah strikes Israel after death of senior field commander
- Hezbollah said it attacked “the headquarters of the 91st Division in the Biranit Barracks with heavy Burkan missiles, achieving a direct hit and destroying part of it”
- Israeli radio spoke of a “large-scale attack from Lebanese territory” and that “the rocket fire on the Meron Base does not stop”
US touts ‘New Gaza’ filled with luxury real estate
Davos, Switzerland: US officials on Thursday presented their vision for a “New Gaza” that would turn the shattered Palestinian territory into a glitzy resort of skyscrapers by the sea, saying the transformation could emerge in three years.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.
A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.
“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success.”
With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.
“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.
Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there,” he said.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”
’Amazing’ opportunities
Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.
“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.
“So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”
Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” sparking outrage around the world.
Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.
According to a brief statement from his office, El-Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy.”
Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.
A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.
Entire neighborhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.
Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.
“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.
He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.
“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.
“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.
A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.
“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success.”
With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.
“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.
Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there,” he said.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”
’Amazing’ opportunities
Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.
“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.
“So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”
Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” sparking outrage around the world.
Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.
According to a brief statement from his office, El-Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy.”
Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.
A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.
Entire neighborhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.
Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.
“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.
He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.
“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.
“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
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