Israel targets Hezbollah commander in Beirut airstrike; Iran’s president vows to get sanctions lifted

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would “spare no effort” in his push for the US to remove economic sanctions, as a top European Union envoy arrived in Tehran for talks with officials.

Israel’s defence minister accused far-right counterparts in the government of undermining the nation’s war effort by encouraging protests against the arrest of soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner.

Israel targets Hezbollah commander in Beirut airstrike

Israel targeted a senior Hezbollah commander with an airstrike on Beirut, a retaliation for a rocket attack in the Golan Heights that killed 12 young people over the weekend.

Israeli officials signalled they would not escalate the situation further. The military wasn’t planning any more immediate attacks in response to the assault on the Druze town of Majdal Shams on Saturday, senior Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The strike on Lebanon’s capital happened shortly before 8pm local time and was aimed at Fuad Shukr, according to the officials. It was unclear if Shukr — a senior military adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — survived. He is also known as Mohsin.

Shukr is wanted by the US government for his involvement in a bombing in Beirut in 1983 that killed about 240 US service members.

“This was not a massive ‘destroy Beirut, obliterate Lebanon’s infrastructure’ attack,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This attack was targeted and fearsome in its tactical intelligence, but not overwhelming. Hezbollah can choose not to escalate.”

The Israel Defense Forces said it went after “the commander responsible for the murder of the children” in the Golan Heights and “the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians”.

TV footage out of Beirut showed plumes of smoke rising from buildings in Haret Hreik in the southern suburbs, home to many supporters of Hezbollah. Lebanese media reported that at least one woman was killed.

“For Hezbollah and Israel, a regional escalation isn’t on the cards, or at least they don’t want it to be,” Natasha Hall, a senior fellow of the CSIS Middle East Program, said on Bloomberg TV. “That said, there could always be an escalation by accident, which is essentially what happened with the Majdal Shams attack.”

Israel blamed Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, for the strike on a football field in the Druze town on Saturday. Hezbollah denied it was responsible.

The US agreed with Israel that Hezbollah was culpable but urged all sides to avoid any escalation that could lead to a wider war in the region.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the Beirut strike was a “criminal action” that wouldn’t stop the “Lebanese resistance” from supporting Palestinians. It emphasised the right of Lebanon to respond.

Iran’s president vows to lift sanctions, reconnect with world

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would “spare no effort” in his push for the US to remove economic sanctions, as a top European Union envoy arrived in Tehran for talks with officials.

The Islamic Republic had an “absolute right” to normal economic and trade relations with the rest of the world, the reformist leader said on Tuesday in his first major public speech since his election win earlier this month.

Pezeshkian (69) didn’t explicitly mention the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers over its nuclear programme, which temporarily secured sanctions relief, but has pledged to revive the now-defunct accord.

Addressing foreign dignitaries — including high-ranking officials from Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — Pezeshkian delivered a fierce rebuke of Israel and its military bombardment of Gaza, prompting cheers and applause from the audience at his inauguration ceremony in Tehran.

Read more: Can Iran’s reformist president make a difference?: QuickTake

Pezeshkian has said that he wants to improve Iran’s economy and relationship with the West while stressing the need to build a domestic consensus. Iran’s political system has been deeply divided over the terms and legacy of the nuclear accord, in part due to the economic fallout.

“My administration will not surrender to bullying and pressure,” he said. “Two decades’ worth of experience in talks shows that we have remained committed to obligations. Sanctions and pressure won’t yield results and the Iranian people should be spoken to with respect,” Pezeshkian said.

The landmark nuclear agreement collapsed after the US walked away from the deal six years ago. The Donald Trump administration opposed the agreement and imposed a much tougher sanctions regime on Iran that triggered a major economic crisis.

In response, Iran ramped up its atomic activities way beyond the limits set out by the deal.

Earlier on Tuesday, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s diplomat in charge of nuclear negotiations with Iran, arrived in Tehran for talks with officials, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

Mora led the last round of discussions aimed at reviving the accord, which was between Tehran and world powers including the US. Those stalled in August 2022 under the hard-line government of late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

Israel’s war unity shaken by allegations prisoner was abused

Israel’s defence minister accused far-right counterparts in the government of undermining the nation’s war effort by encouraging protests against the arrest of soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner.

Yoav Gallant demanded action against those who publicly supported the demonstrators — including fellow Cabinet members — after the army diverted two regiments following unrest at two facilities for detainees related to the war in Gaza. Protesters surged through the gates of the jails on Monday, scuffling with guards and calling for the release of nine accused soldiers.

The soldiers all deny the charges against them.

“Last night’s events constitute a grave blow to national security,” Gallant said in an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who didn’t immediately respond.

Support for the demonstrators came not only from ultra-nationalist ministers like Itamar Ben Gvir, but from legislators of Netanyahu’s Likud party, a sign of Israel’s move to the right. That shift has been especially pronounced since the 7 October attack by Hamas militants, which left 1,200 people dead and triggered the conflict in Gaza.

Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition depends on support from far-right parties, condemned the protest but without great vigour. Some Likud colleagues accused the army of “appeasing those who hate us” by arresting the soldiers accused of abuse.

The raid by military police on Sde Teiman, a desert jail for Palestinians captured during the 7 October incursion and subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, was the most significant intervention by Israeli authorities at a site where human-rights groups have alleged intolerable conditions.

The army said the soldiers, all of them reservists, were accused of “serious mistreatment” of a detainee. Israeli media said that included sexual abuse, reports the army neither confirmed nor denied.

The 7 October attack has traumatised Israelis, with attention focused on the extent of the slaughter and accusations of cruelty by the attackers that day.

The idea that Israeli soldiers are also being abusive to Palestinians — or that Israel’s war in Gaza has killed too many civilians — has gained little traction within the country except on the far left. That contrasts with the wider world, where pro-Palestinian protests have been a fixture on the streets of cities like London and in US colleges for several months.

Still, Israel’s military and other authorities were shocked to see people trying to stop the police from doing their jobs. Protesters went both to Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid facility, which will serve as the courthouse for the detainees.

Gallant described the deployment of troops at Beit Lid, the attendance of the top general and the atmosphere of incitement against the military as drains on wartime operations.

Ben Gvir, one of those Gallant accused in his letter to Netanyahu, responded with demands the prime minister investigate the defence chief over events leading up to the war in Gaza. That includes calls by anti-government demonstrators for military reservists not to attend routine training before 7 October.

Some others said the prison break-ins and high-level support for demonstrators were signs of national decline.

“All the red lines were crossed today,” said Yair Lapid, the centrist head of the opposition. “This is a notice to the State of Israel that they are done with democracy, done with the rule of law. They are a dangerous fascist insurrection that is an existential danger.”

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive in Gaza, according to health officials in Hamas-run territory, who don’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel says it has killed 14,000 Hamas soldiers. DM

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