MONITORING (SW) – Israel’s military said it killed a top Hezbollah commander as part of a two-day aerial barrage that has left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict, as Lebanon says only the Unites States can help end the fighting.
The IDF said the air strikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, who it said was the commander of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket force.
An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday as cross-border rocket attacks by both sides increased fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East and Lebanon said only Washington could help end the fighting, reported Reuters.
Hezbollah early on Wednesday confirmed senior commander Ibrahim Qubaisi was killed by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday on the Lebanese capital as Israel announced earlier. Israel said Qubaisi headed the group’s missile and rocket force.
In Beirut, thousands of displaced people who fled from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.
Half a million people are estimated to have been displaced in Lebanon.
The U.S. and fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt have so far been unsuccessful in their efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the nearly year-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is bracing for a triple crisis as Israeli strikes on Lebanon add to the strain it is facing in Gaza and the West Bank, its chief has said.
UNRWA, founded in 1949, provides services, including education and healthcare, for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
With three of its area of operations turning into “active frontlines,” the embattled agency already grappling with a severe financial shortfall is poised to come under even more pressure, said UNRWA´s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. “We already have Gaza, we already have the West Bank, so we have two fields of operation which have become active frontlines,” he said.
