Israel has launched another series of attacks on Beirut and Lebanon, a day after it carried out a massive strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital in an apparent attempt to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a key ally of Iran.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
The unprecedented five hours of continuous strikes early on Saturday followed Friday’s attack in which several whole apartment blocks were levelled, by far the most powerful by Israel on Beirut during nearly a year of war with Hezbollah.
Targeting Nasrallah – even if he was not harmed – would mark a staggering escalation on the Israeli side. He represents Iran’s most important regional asset and has long been seen as linchpin in the so-called axis of resistance. The presence of Hezbollah’s large rocket arsenal on Israel’s northern border has long acted as a deterrent to an Israeli attack on Iran and its nuclear programme.
The latest escalation has sharply increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, as well as the US, Israel’s main ally.
There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate after Friday’s heavy strikes, but a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable. The Lebanese armed group has not made a statement. Other media outlets quoted Hezbollah sources saying he was “alive and well”.
Israel has not said whether it tried to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said top Hezbollah commanders were targeted.
“I think it’s too early to say … Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said in a statement early Saturday that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
After a relentless night, the strikes appeared to stop at around 6am, though fires were still smouldering in several areas.
“I felt like the building was going to collapse on top of me,” said Abir Hammoud, a teacher in her 40s.
Lebanese health authorities confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in Israel’s initial attack on Friday – the fourth on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest since a 2006 war – which flattened several apartment blocks in the densely populated neighbourhood of Haret Hreik, in the suburb of Dahiya. Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed.
Some early estimates put the number of dead from the strike at 300. The death toll was expected to rise significantly as rescue workers clear rubble. The strikes reportedly left craters up to five metres wide, an Agence France-Presse photographer said, adding that ambulances were coming from all sides while fires burned.
More than 700 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past week, authorities said.
Early on Saturday Lebanon’s health ministry said hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs would be evacuated, urging hospitals in unaffected areas to stop admitting non-urgent cases.
Israeli strikes were also reported early on Saturday in the mountain town of Bhamdoun, south-east of Beirutm and in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Friday’s strike came shortly after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the UN general assembly in a bellicose speech marked by the walkout of dozens of diplomats that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue despite international efforts to secure a three-week ceasefire.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, condemned the attack as a “flagrant war crime”.
“The attacks perpetrated … by the Zionist regime in the Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut constitute a flagrant war crime that has revealed once again the nature of this regime’s state terrorism,” he said in a statement carried by the official Irna news agency.
Netanyahu’s office said he had personally approved the strike allegedly targeting Nasrallah, issuing a photograph of Netanyahu with his military secretary and chief of staff on the phone in his New York hotel. His office also announced that he had cut short his US visit and would return immediately to Israel.
Underlining the significance of the strike, Israeli media reported that the operation was watched as it unfolded by the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in the command centre of the Israeli air force in Tel Aviv, along with the Israeli chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, and other top commanders.
Although some Israeli media suggested that the US had been informed minutes before the attack, that was emphatically denied by the US president, Joe Biden, who told reporters the US had “no knowledge of or participation” in the strike.
Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.
Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the Lebanese armed group’s media office said in a statement.
Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of a neighbourhood Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.
“We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood,” he said. The family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.
“We’re going to the mountains. We’ll see how to spend the night – and tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”
About 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to well over 200,000.
Israel’s government has said that returning 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel’s air defence systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.
Iran, which said Friday’s attack crossed “red lines”, accused Israel of using US-made “bunker-busting” bombs.
At the UN, where the annual general assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of concern including by France, with which the US has proposed a 21-day ceasefire. Netanyahu dismissed the ceasefire proposals.
“This must be brought to an end immediately,” French ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.
At a New York press conference, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said: “We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict … We will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course.”
Reuters contributed to this report