Hezbollah has appointed cleric Naim Kassem as its new leader following the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Lebanese capital, Beirut, last month.
The 71-year-old Kassem is considered one of Hezbollah's founding members and served as the group's deputy for 33 years, initially under Nasrallah’s predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed in 1992. Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran and are designated terrorist organizations by the US. See an overview of Hezbollah here and Hamas here.
Across Gaza, at least 115 people were killed from Israeli airstrikes yesterday, with most of the deaths attributed to a hit on a five-story residential building in the north, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The attack came a day after Israel's parliament banned the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, from operating within Israel.
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