2 Australians, including suspected Hezbollah fighter, killed in IDF strike in Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed two Australian citizens, including an alleged member of the Hezbollah terror group, Australia said on Thursday.
Ibrahim Bazzi and his brother Ali Bazzi were killed in the airstrike on Tuesday in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, Acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus said.
Ibrahim Bazzi had arrived in Lebanon recently from Sydney to accompany his Lebanese wife Shorouq Hammoud to Australia, according to media reports. Hammoud, who had recently received an Australian visa, was also killed in the attack.
Their three coffins were draped with the flag of Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, which is at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Dreyfus said Australia was investigating Hezbollah’s claim that Ali Bazzi was one of its fighters.
“Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organization under Australian law. It’s an offense for any Australian to cooperate with, to support, let alone to fight with a listed terrorist organization like Hezbollah,” Dreyfus told reporters.
Although family members in the village alleged that Ali Bazzi was a civilian, Hezbollah put out a statement announcing his death as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” as it typically does when one of its fighters is killed.
Dreyfus said his government had communicated with Israel about the airstrike but declined to disclose what was said.
“In the context of the current conflict, Australia has consistently called for civilian lives to be protected and we have consistently raised our concerns about the risk of this conflict spreading,” Dreyfus said.
Dreyfus repeated a government warning for Australians not to travel to Lebanon. Australians already in the country should leave while commercial air services are available.
The Australian embassy in Beirut was ready to provide consular assistance to the Bazzi family if required, he said.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said one of its jets had struck a Hezbollah military site overnight in Lebanon.
Bint Jbeil is a Hezbollah stronghold and large parts of it were destroyed during the 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite terror group.
Following the strike, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets at Israel, damaging residential buildings in the city of Kiryat Shmona.
No injuries were reported in the attacks, which appeared to mark the most intense volleys on northern Israel since the region was plunged into war on October 7 with Hamas’s murderous onslaught on southern Israel.
Israel responded to the Hezbollah attacks with more airstrikes in southern Lebanon.
Kiryat Shmona, normally home to over 20,000 people, has been largely evacuated in recent months, along with other towns near the Israel-Lebanon border, due to near-daily rocket, missile and drone attacks launched by Hezbollah and allied groups.
The near-daily clashes on Israel’s northern border began following Hamas’s October 7 massacres and the subsequent war in Gaza through which Israel has vowed to eliminate the Palestinian terror group. Along with allied Palestinian factions along the Lebanon border, Hezbollah has said that it is carrying out attacks on Israel in a show of support for the people of Gaza.
Four Israeli civilians and nine soldiers have been killed in attacks on the northern border, which have included dozens of anti-tank missile attacks. There have also been several rocket attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 129 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 16 Palestinian terror operatives, a Lebanese soldier and at least 19 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Source » timesofisrael.com
