Hezbollah Retaliates for Israel Killing Two Militant Commanders

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, key elections in Croatia and the Solomon Islands, and the Georgian Dream party approving the first read of a “foreign agents” bill.

Israel’s Northern Front

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group launched a drone and missile strike against northern Israel on Wednesday. At least 14 soldiers were injured, six critically, in the Bedouin border town of Arab al-Aramshe. Hezbollah officials said the attack targeted an Israeli reconnaissance site in retaliation for recent Israeli operations against Hezbollah fighters.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed two Hezbollah commanders in separate strikes in southern Lebanon. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the attacks killed Ismail Yusaf Baz, a commander of Hezbollah’s coastal sector, and Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Shechory, a commander in the elite Radwan Force. “The Middle East’s skies are open,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops at the northern border on Tuesday. “Each enemy that fights us, we will know how to strike it wherever it is.” Hezbollah did not confirm the two members’ rankings.

The militant group also said it used suicide drones to strike Beit Hillel, a border town in northern Israel, earlier on Tuesday. Hezbollah claimed to have targeted Iron Dome platforms, killing some Israelis. The Iron Dome is one of Israel’s main air defense systems, responsible for shooting down incoming short-range rockets; it was used along with other air defense systems, including the Arrow 3 and David’s Sling, to intercept the bulk of the aerial threats that Iran launched at Israel last Saturday. The IDF said Hezbollah’s attack on Tuesday is “under review” but did not confirm any casualties.

Ongoing violence between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in recent months. Since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, there have been more than 4,400 rocket, missile, and other assaults between Israeli and Hezbollah forces, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is one of the most powerful militias in the Middle East. Israeli intelligence believes that the armed group has more than 100,000 rockets and missiles under its command, which is an even bigger arsenal than what Hamas was believed to have had prior to its Oct. 7 assault.

Israel’s northern border is not the only front that the IDF faces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will “make its own decisions” on how to defend itself after Tehran launched an unprecedented direct military attack on Israel last weekend. The United States, European Union, and G-7 members have since announced plans to consider tighter sanctions on Iran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that Washington will announce new restrictions “in the coming days,” with one Treasury Department official telling the New York Times that the Biden administration is looking to cut off Iran’s access to military hardware used to build weapons, such as the drones it fired at Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks pushed into northern Gaza on Tuesday, cutting off internet access and surrounding schools where residents were sheltering, locals said. The operation came one day after Israel warned Palestinians not to return to their homes in the area. Israeli warplanes also conducted airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday, killing several people. And an Israeli airstrike allegedly killed 13 Palestinians, including seven children, in al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, local hospital officials reported.

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What We’re Following

Elections spotlight. Croatia held parliamentary elections on Wednesday that pit the European nation’s top two officials against each other. Incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic led the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, and President Zoran Milanovic led a centrist and left-wing coalition that included his Social Democratic Party.

If the Croatian Democratic Union secures another majority in the 151-seat parliament, Zagreb will likely maintain its decades-long pro-Western policies. But if the Social Democratic Party wins, Croatia will likely shift closer to Russia, putting the populist party on track to win European Parliament elections in June and Zagreb’s presidential election in December. Initial exit polls showed Plenkovic’s party losing several seats.

Citizens of the Solomon Islands also went to the polls on Wednesday for the country’s widely anticipated parliamentary elections. Incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is seeking his fifth (though not consecutive) term as candidates vie for spots in the 50-member parliament. Vote counting will begin on Thursday.

This is the Solomon Islands’ first vote since Sogavare signed a security pact with Beijing in 2022; he switched the country’s diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China in 2019 after being elected. The United States, Australia, China, and other Indo-Pacific powers are keen to see how Sogavare fares, believing that the election could impact great-power competition in the region.

Alleged Russian influence. Parliamentarians in Georgia voted on Wednesday to advance a controversial “foreign agents” bill. If passed, the legislation would require nongovernmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.” President Salome Zourabichvili threatened to veto the bill, but the pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party controls enough seats in parliament to override it. The bill must pass two more readings before it can become law.

Mass protests condemning the proposal have swept across Tbilisi, with Zourabichvili saying the bill itself is an instrument of Russian interference to undermine Georgia’s bid to join the EU. “This is a very concerning development, and the final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path,” bloc officials said. Moscow boasts a similar law that it has used to crack down on political opposition, news outlets, and human rights activists.

Deadly attack on Ukraine. Russian forces killed at least 17 people and injured more than 60 others during a strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday. Three Iskander missiles targeted the city’s downtown during its morning rush hour. “This would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror was also sufficient,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

An emergency spending bill for Ukraine has been stalled in the U.S. Congress for months. On Wednesday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson released the texts of a series of funding bills that would decouple Ukraine aid from Israel aid, which he hopes will appease Republicans. The package reflects most of the $95.3 billion aid package that the Senate approved in February, which allocated $60 billion for Kyiv. A vote is expected late Saturday.

Odds and Ends

Next stop on the gravy train is Queen’s Park. Toronto police determined on Tuesday that a suspicious package sent to Ontario’s legislature was just powdered gravy. Investigators believe that the package was a prank done in reference to Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser gifting Ontario Premier Doug Ford a can of gravy last week to criticize his staff’s high salaries. Ford’s family slogan used to be “Stop the gravy train” after his brother used the motto to campaign for mayor. Fraser, though, has flipped the script, accusing Ford of “obscene” salaries at the expense of taxpayers and turkey-lovers everywhere.