JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah navy commander in an air strike Tuesday in south Lebanon, accusing the slain militant of violating a November ceasefire.
The Israeli air force “struck and eliminated” Khodr Said Hashem, a naval unit commander for the Lebanese armed group, near the town of Qana, a military statement said.
It accused Hashem of “activities (that) posed a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
The military said Hashem was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and played a role in “maritime smuggling operations.”
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported one person killed in an Israeli strike on a car in a village in the area of the southern city of Tyre, where Qana is located.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Ezzedine called on a committee tasked with overseeing the November 27 truce deal with Israel to “put an end to this continued violation of our national sovereignty.”
He also urged the committee to “exert all pressure to expel the enemy from the lands it occupies,” warning that failure to do so would “push our people and our citizens to exercise their right to resist” them.
The truce deal largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, though Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.
The fighting, initiated by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, included two months of all-out war and killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, according to authorities.
In Israel, 78 people were killed, as well as 56 troops killed inside Lebanon.
Hundreds of thousands have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the UN, and 60,000 in Israel.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems “strategic.”
The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in what he called a “buffer zone” in south Lebanon.
Israel says killed Hezbollah navy commander in Lebanon strike
https://arab.news/m2bsq
Israel says killed Hezbollah navy commander in Lebanon strike
- The Israeli air force “struck and eliminated” Khodr Said Hashem, a naval unit commander for the Lebanese armed group
- It accused Hashem of “activities (that) posed a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon“
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
