September 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Lebanese Shiite party-militia Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Ibrahim Mohamad Kobeisi, head of the missile unit of its military branch, “in a targeted bombing” carried out by the Israeli army against the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as part of its intense wave of air strikes since Monday, which to date have left nearly 570 dead and more than 1,800 wounded.
“Hezbollah mourns leader Ibrahim Mohamed Kobeisi ‘Hajj Abu Musa’, born in 1962 in the village of Zebdine, in southern Lebanon,” reads a statement reported by the Lebanese television channel Al Manar, affiliated with the Islamist group, which has not commented on the other two deaths claimed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
A few hours earlier, the IDF itself had reported the elimination of Kobeisi, who was the main target of the attack, considering him to be the leader of several Hezbollah units, including the “precision missile” branch, and who over the past few years had been responsible for the launching of missiles by the Lebanese militia against Israeli positions.
Kobeisi, who joined the group in the 1980s, has held “several key military positions” and was close to Hezbollah’s top brass. The IDF has noted that Kobeisi participated in the 2000 kidnapping of several Israeli soldiers whose bodies were recovered four years later.
The IDF has confirmed numerous attacks throughout the afternoon against Hezbollah positions in southern and eastern Lebanon, to which the Islamist group has responded by launching dozens of rockets against Israeli military positions, against settlements in the north of the country and against the city of Haifa, where a fire has broken out as a result.
Tensions have risen in recent days, particularly following last week’s wave of coordinated explosions targeting communications devices allegedly used by Hezbollah, which left around 40 dead and 3,000 injured, incidents criticised by the international community for their indiscriminate nature.
Hostilities in the region erupted after Hamas and other Palestinian factions launched a series of attacks on Israel on October 7, leaving nearly 1,200 people dead and more than 250 hostages. The Israeli army then launched a bloody military campaign against Gaza that has so far left more than 41,400 dead, in addition to more than 700 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The October 7 attacks, dubbed the “Al-Aqsa Flood” by Hamas and its allies, also led to the opening of a front on the border between Israel and Lebanon, with constant fighting for more than eleven months. In addition, the Houthis and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have launched missiles and drones against Israel – which has carried out bombings against territory in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen – in response to its offensive against Gaza.
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