A huge fireball lit up the night sky and plumes of smoke rose over south Beirut early Sunday as Israel unleashed intense air strikes targeting Hezbollah, nearly a year since the Gaza war erupted.
Israeli forces were on high alert ahead of Monday’s anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, which sparked the war.
After a devastating year-long conflict in Gaza, Israel has now shifted its focus to northwards to Hezbollah, Hamas’s Iran-backed ally in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut was hit by more than 30 strikes, which were heard across the city. Targets included a petrol station.
Israel’s military said it “conducted a series of strikes on a number of weapons storage facilities” and infrastructure, stressing it had taken “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
AFPTV footage showed a massive fireball over a residential area of south Beirut, followed by a loud bang and secondary explosions. Smoke still billowed from the site after dawn.
In the Sabra area, near the southern suburbs, dozens of people, some carrying bags on foot and others on motorbikes, fled one of the most intense bombardments of the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli forces with artillery after they tried to infiltrate towards Khallat Shuaib in Blida, in southern Lebanon.
A statement said fighters fired a rocket barrage at Israeli troops during the evacuation of “dead and wounded soldiers” in the Menara border area shortly after midnight.
Hezbollah also said it launched assault drones against an Israeli military base.
– ‘Ongoing threat’ –
Ahead of Monday’s grim anniversary, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a televised briefing: “We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day”, when there could be “attacks on the home front”.
Last year’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militants resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
One year later, Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas continues despite having shifted its focus to Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Israel’s military said it had killed around 440 Hezbollah fighters “from the ground and from the air” since Monday, when troops began “targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by almost a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to return home.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Iran an “ongoing threat” after Tehran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East, on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for Israeli killings of militant leaders including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The missile attack killed a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and damaged an Israeli air base, according to satellite images.
It came the same day Israeli ground forces began their raids into Lebanon after days of intense strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon.
– ‘Resistance won’t back down’ –
One Israeli military official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, said the army “is preparing a response” to Iran’s attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted Iran had twice launched “hundreds of missiles” at Israel since April.
“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and to respond to these attacks and that is what we will do,” he said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of obstructing efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and deal to free hostages still held by Hamas.
A senior Hezbollah source said Saturday the group had lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely tipped to be the next Hezbollah leader, after air strikes in Beirut.
The movement is yet to name a new chief after Israel assassinated Nasrallah late last month in a massive strike in Lebanon’s capital.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that “the resistance in the region will not back down”.
Late Saturday Israel issued a new order for residents of southern Beirut to evacuate.
Across Lebanon, strikes against Hezbollah have killed more than 1,110 people since September 23, according to a tally based on official figures.
– ‘Never-ending nightmare’ –
UN’s refugee agency head Filippo Grandi said Lebanon “faces a terrible crisis” and warned “hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes”.
Israeli bombardment has put at least four hospitals in Lebanon out of service, the facilities said.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said it rejected a request by the Israeli military to “relocate some of our positions” in south Lebanon.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Damascus Saturday after visiting Beirut, renewed his call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, while threatening Israel with an “even stronger” reaction to any attack on Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time “that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza” and criticised Israel’s decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators tried unsuccessfully for months to reach a Gaza truce and secure the release of 97 hostages still held there.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Sunday an Israeli strike on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah killed 21 people, while Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
Ahead of the October 7 anniversary, thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities.
Israel’s President Herzog said his country’s October 7 “wounds still cannot fully heal”.