Several salvos of Hezbollah rockets were launched on the night of Monday October 21 to Tuesday October 22 against military positions around Tel Aviv and Haifa, while American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Israel today to defend the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza and end the war “as quickly as possible”. The day after massive strikes against Hezbollah, and in particular against organs and actors of its financial system in recent days, the Israeli army announced that it had killed one of the main financial managers of the Islamist organization in Syria.
Information to remember
⇒ Hezbollah rocket salvos targeted several Israeli military positions
⇒ Antony Blinken continues his tour for a ceasefire in Jordan
⇒ A “senior financial official” of Hezbollah killed by the Israeli army in Syria
09:50
Iran says its neighbors will not allow their ‘airspace’ to be used to attack it
Iran’s neighbors will not allow their “soil or airspace” to be used for attacks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday, as Israel considers response to missile attack Iran on October 1 on its soil. “All our neighbors have assured us that they will not allow their soil or airspace to be used against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Abbas Araghchi said at a press conference in Kuwait.
09:10
US Secretary of State arrives in Israel
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken arrived this Tuesday morning in Israel, as part of his eleventh tour to the Middle East intended once again to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. He is due to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Israeli officials, before traveling to Jordan on Wednesday, to discuss humanitarian aid in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip with Jordanian officials.
On Monday, October 21, the American special envoy, Amos Hochstein, affirmed in Beirut that Washington was working for a settlement “as quickly as possible” of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
08:50
Hezbollah attacks several military positions in Tel Aviv and Haifa
The Lebanese Hezbollah movement said it fired rockets early Tuesday at several positions in Israel, including a naval base and a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, targeted for the second time in a few hours. A “salvo of rockets” was fired against “the Glilot base of Unit 8,200 of Military Intelligence,” according to a Hezbollah press release. Monday evening, the pro-Iranian movement had already claimed similar strikes on this same position. In northern Israel, the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa was also targeted. The pro-Iranian movement also claimed responsibility for rocket fire on Tuesday at another position “in the suburbs of Tel Aviv”, targeting the town of Nirit, about twenty km east of Tel Aviv.
08:30
Israel says it killed senior Hezbollah financial official
The Israeli army announced Monday October 21 that it had killed in Syria a senior Hezbollah official responsible for a significant part of the financing of the Lebanese Islamist movement. The man, whose name was not revealed, was the commander of unit 4400, “responsible for transfers of funds from Hezbollah” obtained in particular through the sale of Iranian oil, said the spokesperson for Hezbollah. the army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. Unit 4,400 is notably responsible for transporting Iranian oil unloaded in Syria to resell it in Lebanon. “We are talking about tens of millions of dollars,” said Admiral Hagari.
Earlier, the army had indicated that it had struck nearly 30 targets linked to the financial organization Al-Qard al-Hassan, close to Hezbollah, against which it began strikes across Lebanon on Sunday.
08:10
Israel says it struck 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The Israeli army announced Monday that it had struck around 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in 24 hours, after expanding its offensive against the pro-Iranian group by targeting its financial system. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted an Islamist group’s bunker containing “tens of millions of dollars” as part of a “series of precision strikes against Hezbollah’s financial interests”.
In Lebanon, Monday evening, strikes near Hariri Hospital, the country’s largest public establishment, left at least four dead and 24 injured in south Beirut, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The ministry had previously reported six people killed, including a child, in Baalbeck (east) and four rescuers linked to Hezbollah dead in 24 hours in the south in Israeli raids.
08:00
An American anti-missile system “in place” in Israel
An American anti-missile defense system is now “in place” in Israel, said Monday evening the Minister of Defense of the United States, who justified this deployment by the desire to protect its Israeli ally from a new Iranian missile attack . “This system is in place. We will not say whether it is operational or not but we have the possibility of using it very quickly,” Lloyd Austin underlined according to comments reported Monday by the Pentagon.
Last week, the Pentagon had already announced that it had deployed the soldiers responsible for operating this high altitude anti-missile defense system (Thaad), considered one of the most advanced in the world and composed of launchers mounted on trucks. This deployment “underscores the United States’ commitment to defending Israel and Americans in Israel from any ballistic missile attack by Iran,” said a Pentagon spokesperson, General Pat Ryder.