What we’re covering
• Hezbollah has lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, a possible successor to its late leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to a Lebanese security source. An Israeli strike targeted Safieddine on Friday.
• Israel carried out fresh airstrikes Saturday on the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that has seen daily attacks as part of an extensive Israeli bombing campaign. More than 1,400 people have died and over 1 million have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
• In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes continue. A strike on a mosque near the enclave’s center killed at least 21 people, according to local Civil Defense and a nearby hospital.
The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise” and saying it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”
• Israel has not given the US assurances it won’t target Iranian nuclear sites, a top State Department official told CNN, as the region braces for Israel’s response to this week’s Iranian missile barrage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that nearly one year after Hamas’ attacks on Israel, his country is now fighting on seven fronts.
“Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization,” he said in a video statement Saturday. He said those include Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, “terrorists” in the West Bank and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.
“And we are fighting against Iran, which last week fired over 200 ballistic missiles directly at Israel and which stands behind this seven-front war against Israel,” Netanyahu said.
He said he is maintaining his promise to change the balance of power in the north between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has launched nearly 9,000 attacks into Lebanon since October 8 and Hezbollah launched 1,500 attacks in that same time frame, according to the ACLED data.
Referring to Gaza, Netanyahu said that Israel has a right defend itself and that it will not forget the 101 hostages “whom we are committed to with all our might to bring them home.”
At least 41,825 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7 last year, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Netanyahu said “shame on” French President Emmanuel Macron and other countries who call for arms embargoes against Israel. “Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won – for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world,” Netanyahu added.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the last month, and nearly 7,500 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
