Hezbollah elects leader

LEBANON'S Hezbollah has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, the militant group said yesterday, and vowed to continue "until victory is achieved."

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Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, 71, who had been Nasrallah's deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general.

Lebanon's Health Ministry reported that more than 2,700 people had been killed and nearly 12,600 wounded since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported on Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants.