An assassination in Beirut: Will the Middle East war spread?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
The killing of a senior Hamas official in Lebanon has further stoked tensions in the Middle East. Hezbollah’s supreme leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has warned Israel that it is ready for war “without limits” should the IDF attack. Meanwhile, Iran has blamed Israel for a twin bomb attack near the tomb of an Iranian general. What impact will these developments have on the war in Gaza?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Matt Chorley, Politics Without the Boring Bits. |
| 0:04.0 | Do you like the Red Box Podcast? |
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| 0:11.0 | It's exactly the same, but with a new name, a new logo, and even... B and the big thing, download the all new Politics Without the Boring Bits wherever you get your |
| 0:26.0 | podcasts. |
| 0:27.0 | It's been 90 days since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas, and with no end in |
| 0:39.9 | sight the death toll is shooting up in Gaza and the UN is warning of a |
| 0:45.8 | humanitarian disaster. More airstrikes and shelling has been reported in the |
| 0:51.2 | southern city of Khan Yunus and the |
| 0:53.2 | humanitarian situation and the territory continues to deteriorate. |
| 0:56.5 | The new year bringing increasing fears that Israel's war with Hamas could escalate into a wider conflict. |
| 1:07.2 | And this week the war took a new turn. |
| 1:12.0 | An explosion rocks southern Beirut Tuesday evening, killing seven Hamas militants. |
| 1:17.4 | Hamas says its deputy political leader, Sala al-A-Laruri, has been killed in a blast in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. |
| 1:25.7 | Israel neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing of Salah al-Ruri, |
| 1:32.3 | but his death has unleashed fears that the war could now spread beyond Gaza. |
| 1:39.0 | Hamas called the attack a cowardly assassination in a statement released by Hezbollah it says |
| 1:46.3 | its hand is on the trigger and this is a memorable day for what follows and then in a dizzying 24 hours for the Middle East, with |
| 1:56.6 | tensions already at snapping point, a round of attacks in Iran shook the region. |
| 2:06.4 | State-run media in Iran are reporting that more than 100 people have been killed and many |
| 2:11.9 | more wounded after explosions at an event |
| 2:14.7 | honoring a prominent general. A pro-regime figure is already blaming the Israelis |
... |
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