The Israeli military launched a series of strikes on southern Beirut on Thursday night, in one of the most intense bombardments on the city since the campaign began last week as Hezbollah continued to attack northern Israel.
The raids came as Israel also cut off a key road near to Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria that has been used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days.
A source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency that Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital.
Hashem Safieddine, the most likely candidate to replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah and the head of its executive council, was the target of the strikes, the New York Times and Axios reported, citing Israeli officials. The result of the attacks, said to have targeted a meeting of senior Hezbollah figures, is unclear.
Footage showed giant balls of flame rising from the targeted site with thick smoke billowing and flares shooting out. Reporters in the capital and beyond heard loud bangs that made car alarms go off and buildings shake.
The strike on the road near the Masnaa crossing came a day after Israel accused Hezbollah of using border crossings with Syria to bring in weapons and amid evidence that Israel is targeting key roads, both international routes and internally, as it did during the 2006 war.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said on X: “The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war.”
Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said the Israeli strike hit Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a 4-metre (12ft) wide crater.
According to the Lebanese government, more than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – haave crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the past 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment. Earlier this week, Israel bombed and cut off a road near Nabatieh.
The Israeli military has ordered people in 20 more southern towns in Lebanon to evacuate immediately as it presses ahead with its incursions.
Safieddine leads Hezbollah’s highest political decision-making body, the executive council, and was considered the number two in the organisation’s political wing before the death of Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh last week.
He is reportedly designated to succeed Nasrallah, though no formal announcement of his succession has been made. Previously, the group’s political leaders such as Nasrallah, Safieddine and other officials in its political wing were thought not to be targets of Israel during wartime.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike struck a building that housed the Hezbollah’s media relations office in southern Beirut. Earlier in the evening, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that another Israeli strike had targeted a warehouse next to Beirut airport, south of the capital.
Israel announced this week that its troops had begun “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon after days of heavy bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds around the country.
The bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon came as Israel weighed up retaliation for Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack on Israel.
On Thursday, Joe Biden said he still believed an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, but added “there is a lot to do yet”.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is due to lead Friday prayers and deliver a public sermon that could shed light on the Islamic republic’s plans after the massive missile attack on Israel this week.
Khamenei’s rare Friday sermon – a first in almost five years – comes three days before the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US army base in Iraq, in response to a strike that killed the Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani.
The prayer will follow “a commemoration ceremony” for Nasrallah. Iran said its attack on Israel was carried out in “self-defence” and warned of further “crushing attacks” if it retaliated.
Iran also warned the US against intervening, threatening “a harsh response” if it did. Washington has said Iran must suffer “consequences”, which may be coordinated with Israeli officials, for the ballistic missile fire.
Biden said on Thursday he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil sites.
Hours after the latest Israeli strikes, which including a location close to the perimeter of Beirut’s international airport, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, landed safely in the city for meetings with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, who is a close ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report