Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at ongoing Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, the first day of general debate at the United Nations General Assembly, and dueling arrest warrants between Argentina and Venezuela.
Bombarding Beirut
An Israeli airstrike killed at least six people, including a senior Hezbollah commander and potentially other militants, in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. Israeli forces said Ibrahim Qubaisi was the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division, including its precision-guided missile unit. Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry did not confirm who was targeted or if the intended target was killed.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at ongoing Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, the first day of general debate at the United Nations General Assembly, and dueling arrest warrants between Argentina and Venezuela.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Bombarding Beirut
An Israeli airstrike killed at least six people, including a senior Hezbollah commander and potentially other militants, in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. Israeli forces said Ibrahim Qubaisi was the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division, including its precision-guided missile unit. Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry did not confirm who was targeted or if the intended target was killed.
The strike was part of Israel’s ongoing bombardment of alleged Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon. “Anybody who has a missile in their living room will not have a home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Last week, Israel announced that stopping attacks by the Iranian-backed militant group and returning Israeli residents to their homes in the country’s north near its border with Lebanon was an official war objective as it continues operations against Hamas, also supported by Tehran, in Gaza.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel in solidarity with Palestinians; Israel has responded with strikes of its own on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including two waves of attacks on the group’s communication devices. Months of tit-for-tat exchanges have killed hundreds of people, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands more on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Despite international diplomatic efforts to calm tensions between the two longtime adversaries, the Israel-Hezbollah fight has only escalated and is now on the brink of becoming a full-fledged war. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week that his organization will keep attacking Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli forces bombed around 1,500 suspected Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing more than 550 people—including around 150 women and children and at least four health workers—and injuring more than 1,800 others. It was the deadliest assault on Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
“If there will be a comprehensive all-out war between us and Hezbollah, there will not be Hezbollah and probably not Lebanon after it,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Foreign Policy in July.
Thousands more Lebanese civilians, particularly in the south, have fled their homes in recent days as Israel sent messages urging people to move away from “buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes.” Hezbollah warned the public on Tuesday not to scan a QR code on Israeli-dropped leaflets, which Israel says will provide residents with information on which buildings are set to be targeted. The militant group claimed, without evidence, that Israel was attempting to use the QR codes to spy on Hezbollah. “You must immediately destroy the leaflet because it is very dangerous and can retrieve information from your phone,” the group said.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of sending some 55 rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel. Among their intended targets, Hezbollah said it fired at Israeli military bases, including one south of the Israeli city of Haifa, and at least five civilian communities. The largest hospital in northern Israel, located in Haifa, moved its entire operation to its underground parking lot on Monday to evade strikes.
Both U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have urged all parties to de-escalate. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, indicated on Tuesday that Israel was open to easing tensions in Lebanon.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Biden’s UNGA farewell. Debate at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) kicked off in New York City on Tuesday. Among the most anticipated speakers was U.S. President Joe Biden, who spent his roughly 20-minute statement—his final speech to the United Nations while in office—rallying for greater global engagement to fight autocracy.
“I truly believe we are at another inflection point in world history,” Biden said, alluding to the isolationist threats posed by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in this year’s U.S. election. Biden condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; reiterated U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia; and warned of “profound risks” posed by artificial intelligence.
Other highlights included celebrating U.S. efforts to combat fentanyl, announcing a $500 million package to address Africa’s mpox outbreak, and acknowledging the traumatic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council convened on Tuesday to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is using this week’s summit to hold sideline meetings to press for more foreign support before visiting the White House on Thursday for a one-on-one conversation with Biden.
Tit-for-tat arrest warrants. Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek Saab, asked Interpol on Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for Argentine President Javier Milei. The Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered Milei’s arrest as well as the arrests of Karina Milei, the general secretary of the presidency, and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich on Monday. Caracas has accused Milei of committing seven crimes, including robbery and money laundering, for the seizure of a Venezuelan cargo plane in Buenos Aires in June 2022.
Argentina has dismissed Venezuela’s claims. “What a dictatorial government such as the one in Venezuela says does not concern us in the least,” Argentine presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said.
Just hours after Venezuela’s court order, an Argentine federal court ordered the immediate arrest on Monday of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, for alleged crimes against humanity committed against dissidents since 2014.
Stimulus measures. China’s central bank unveiled a series of measures on Tuesday aimed at reviving Beijing’s economy. The stimulus policies will reduce the amount of money that banks must hold in reserve, lower borrowing costs on roughly $5.3 trillion in mortgages, and allow banks to increase their lending, among other changes. People’s Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng said the institution will also provide at least $113 billion in liquidity support as officials study the possibility of setting up a market stabilization fund.
Investors reacted favorably to Tuesday’s announcement, with the Shanghai Composite Stock Index surging by 4.15 percent—its largest single-day rise in more than four years. Analysts argue that the policies are some of China’s boldest attempts to rekindle the world’s second-largest economy after COVID-19 devastated its housing market. For the past three years, home prices have fallen about 10 percent each year, and recent predictions estimate that China risks missing its growth target of around 5 percent this year.
Odds and Ends
Most companies that sell cleaning products want their customers to, well, clean. Not so much for British laundry detergent company Ecover. This week, Ecover, alongside Falmouth University, released a study detailing how running excessive loads increases pollution risks. According to the report, washing synthetic fabrics accounts for around 8 percent of all microplastics released into the Earth’s water. Instead of giving your wardrobe an extra scrub, Ecover is urging people to re-wear that shirt one more time. So for those in the FP newsroom who see me wearing the same pants multiple times this week, I’m just doing my part for the environment.
The post Senior Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Strike appeared first on Foreign Policy.
