Center East disaster dwell: Hezbollah confirms dying of commander Ibrahim Akil in Beirut airstrike

Israel has submitted an “official challenge” to a request from the worldwide prison court docket prosecutor for an arrest warrant in opposition to its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Might the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested the court docket difficulty arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant over alleged warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity in Gaza.

“The state of Israel submitted today its official challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction, as well as the legality of the prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and minister of defence,” the overseas ministry’s spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, stated on X.

Khan additionally sought warrants in opposition to prime Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif on suspicion of warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.

The prosecutor dropped the appliance for Haniyeh on 2 August “because of the changed circumstances caused by Mr Haniyeh’s death” in Tehran on 31 July, the ICC stated in an announcement this month.

Based on Israel, Deif was killed by a strike on 13 July in southern Gaza, although Hamas denies he’s lifeless.

The court docket continues to be weighing Khan’s software for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant.

The Guardian graphics crew have created this map, which reveals the airstrikes and artillery hearth throughout the Israel-Lebanon border between 19-20 September 2024.

Additional violence between Israel and Iran’s allies Hezbollah and Hamas may ignite a devastating regional battle, the United Nations has warned, after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed no less than 14 individuals together with a senior Hezbollah chief and wounded 66.

Late on Friday, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo stated:

We threat seeing a conflagration that would dwarf even the devastation and struggling witnessed to date.”

Talking at a gathering of the UN safety council which had been convened to debate Israel’s assaults, DiCarlo stated:

It’s not too late to keep away from such folly. There may be nonetheless room for diplomacy. I additionally strongly urge member states with affect over the events to leverage it now.”

Robert Wooden, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, repeated Washington’s assertions that the US had performed no position within the assaults and known as on all events to “refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war”.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had earlier stated Israel’s assaults would proceed, writing on X:

The sequence of actions within the new part will proceed till our purpose is achieved: the secure return of the residents of the north to their properties.”

You may learn extra of the report by William Christou in Beirut and Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem right here:

Here’s a video report on the Israeli airstrike on a residential constructing within the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday. In whole, 14 had been killed and no less than 66 injured.

The Guardian’s worldwide safety correspondent, Jason Burke, has written a profile of Ibrahim Aqil who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Right here is an extract:

Aqil, who was in his early 60s, had risen by means of the ranks and reached a senior place within the organisation. Precise particulars of his position are unclear, however the Israel Protection Forces described him as “the head of the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s operations team, the acting commander of the Radwan [special forces] unit”.

“He was one of the really senior old-timers but was never really the face of anything. He was always a number two or number three, but had just been promoted in the last five to 10 years,” stated Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a analysis fellow on the Basis for Protection of Democracies in Washington and an skilled on extremism in Lebanon.

Aqil was considered one of a bunch of younger Shia males initially from the south of Lebanon however residing in Beirut who had been energised by the 1979 Iranian revolution and recruited by the nation’s Revolutionary Guards right into a community identified initially as Islamic Jihad after which later as Hezbollah.

Their army goal, guided by their Iranian mentors, was to struggle the US, which had dispatched a peacekeeping power to Beirut; and Israel, which had occupied a lot of Lebanon. Their political goal was to show Lebanon into an Islamic state aligned with Tehran. Nearly all have been killed since, in all probability by Israel.

You may learn the total profile right here:

Hezbollah has confirmed the dying of Ibrahim Aqil, who sits on the group’s prime army physique and is needed by the US in reference to the 1983 Beirut embassy bombing. Aqil was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, together with a number of different members of the elite Radwan unit, which beneath his management was designed to conduct cross-border raids into Israel.

The group additionally stated Ahmed Wahbi, a commander who oversaw the army operations of the Radwan unit in the course of the Gaza warfare till early 2024, was additionally killed within the strike.

In its assertion, Hezbollah stated that Aqil led a “blessed life of jihad”.

In whole, 14 had been killed and no less than 66 injured by the Israeli airstrike on a residential constructing within the southern suburbs of Beirut. Paramedics labored late into the night time to retrieve survivors and our bodies from beneath the rubble of the collapsed constructing.

Friday’s strike on Beirut got here amid a pointy escalation by Israel of assaults in opposition to Hezbollah. At the least 42 individuals had been killed and greater than 3,000 injured this week when explosives inserted into pagers and walkie-talkies generally utilized by Hezbollah members had been remotely detonated.

On Wednesday, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant stated the warfare with Hezbollah was coming into a brand new part and that the “centre of gravity” had shifted to combating in northern Israel.

Right here’s a recap of the newest developments:

• Israel submitted formal challenges to the worldwide prison court docket (ICC) on Friday over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests in opposition to Israeli leaders for his or her conduct of the Gaza warfare. In Might the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested the court docket difficulty arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity in Gaza. “The state of Israel submitted today its official challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction, as well as the legality of the prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and minister of defence,” the overseas ministry’s spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, stated on X. Khan additionally sought warrants in opposition to prime Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif on suspicion of warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.

• The White Home stated it had seen “deeply disturbing” footage of Israeli troopers pushing three apparently lifeless our bodies from a rooftop throughout a raid within the occupied West Financial institution on Thursday. The incident came about within the city of Qabatiya within the northern West Financial institution, the place the Israeli army has been finishing up large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian well being ministry says have killed dozens of individuals. The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) stated in an announcement: “This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values ​​and the expectations from IDF soldiers. The incident is under review.” The IDF declined to remark when requested if the troopers concerned had been being investigated.

• Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has postponed his journey to the US by a day as a result of safety state of affairs within the nation’s north. Netanyahu was on account of journey to New York on 24 September, throughout which he’s anticipated to deal with the annual UN basic meeting. He issued a brief assertion after the Beirut airstrike, saying: “Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.”

• The UN’s excessive commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, denounced the pager and walkie-talkie assaults in Lebanon, saying that they violated worldwide regulation and will represent a warfare crime. The UN’s political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, warned that if violence continues between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, then “we risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far”.

• The UK’s overseas secretary, David Lammy, mentioned preparations to evacuate remaining Britons from Lebanon, having already urged UK nationals to go away the nation given the hostilities with Israel. The White Home stated People had been strongly urged to not journey to Lebanon or to go away if they’re already there.

• The US president, Joe Biden, stated a ceasefire deal in Gaza was nonetheless practical amid the escalating tensions within the area. “We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go,” Biden stated in his first feedback on the state of affairs because the wave of explosions focusing on Hezbollah in Lebanon.