Israel ‘prepares response’ to Iran’s ‘unprecedented’ attack

Israel promised Saturday it was “preparing a response” to Iran’s “unprecedented and unlawful attack” – an ominous warning that came after the military reported killing hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists and targeting more than 2,000 of the group’s targets since its offensive in Lebanon began — including another from organization leaders.

The Israel Defense Forces promised a “serious and significant” response to the Iranian offensive and noted that they were taking time to develop a plan that would need to be approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“The IDF is preparing a response to an unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Guardian.

One person was killed and two others injured after Iran fired 200 ballistic missiles into Israeli civilian areas on Tuesday.

In other events:

• The IDF apparently killed Hashem Safieddine, who was seen as the next leader of Hezbollah after “neutralizing” Hassan Nasrallah last week. Safieddine has not been contacted since Israel carried out a large raid in Beirut that IDF officials said was aimed at reaching the underground bunker where he was hiding.

Safieddine is Nasrallah’s maternal cousin. According to CNN, they both shared the same fierce criticism of Israel and the West, while having deep alliances with Iranian leaders.

Safieddine was head of Hezbollah’s executive council and until his predecessor’s death was seen as one of the most likely heirs to the organization’s top job.

• Israel said Saturday that Saeed Atallah of Hamas’ armed wing was killed in an airstrike in northern Lebanon along with his wife and two young daughters. Atallah was the leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian nationalist organization.

The family hunkers down in a Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city of Tripoli.

The targeted attack is the first in northern Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas.

The Lebanese Civil Defense reported that four other people who were in a nearby apartment building were killed in the airstrike.

• Hamas leader Mohammed Hussein al-Lawis, described as the group’s “executive in Lebanon” and whom the Los Angeles Times reported targeted terrorist attacks in the West Bank, was also killed in an airstrike in the Beqaa Valley town of Saadnayel.

Hussein al-Lawis is reported to be responsible for “Hamas’ entrenchment in Lebanon, using it to supply weapons for rocket attacks on Israel, and attempting to produce advanced weapons,” the IDF said.

Hamas also confirmed al-Lawis’ death in a statement.

• Israel has estimated that more than 400 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since Monday during ground operations in southern Lebanon, which has “seriously hit” the group’s command structure, IDF Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told CNN, who added: “This is a painful leadership for the Iranians.”

• On Saturday, the Jewish state carried out a series of airstrikes on Hezbollah command centers, weapons depots, tunnels and other facilities in Lebanon, killing dozens of operatives. The IDF said on Saturday that it also targeted a command center located in a mosque in southern Lebanon that was used “to plan and carry out acts of terror against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” according to the Los Angeles Times. According to the IDF, the drone attack was “precise” and based on intelligence information.
• The Jewish state’s military also claimed to have demolished several Hezbollah tunnel shafts used by agents to approach the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, where weapons caches were discovered and seized.
• Netanyahu in a public speech on Saturday touted the offensive but said the IDF had additional plans to continue its mission of eliminating the threat from Hezbollah. “While we have not yet completed removing the threat, we have clearly changed the course of the war and the balance of the war,” he said.
• Three people suffered minor injuries after Hezbollah fired rockets into the northern Arab village of Deir al-Asad on Saturday.
• Hundreds of foreigners are trying to evacuate Lebanon as fighting continues, including about 250 Americans who were flown back to the United States this week. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller estimated that about 7,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon had registered with the U.S. government to receive information to leave the country.

As the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack approaches, Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a statement saying that “in many ways we are all still living with the events of October 7,” adding that anti-Semitism “has been spreading throughout the world in the face of war.” with Hamas.”

“Iran and its terrorists… are blinded by hatred and bent on the destruction of our only Jewish nation state,” Herzog said, adding: “We have not abandoned our deep longing and aspiration for peace with our neighbors.

With postal wires