The Israeli military has indicated it will expand its operations on multiple fronts around the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday, including a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for last week’s large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel.
“The IDF [Israeli military] is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” the military official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.
As Israel said it was planning its response to Tuesday’s Iranian missile strikes, which hit on or near a number of key Israeli bases, the US president, Joe Biden, cautioned against striking Iranian oil facilities, a day after he said Washington was “discussing” such action.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields,” Biden said during a rare appearance at the White House daily press briefing. The Biden administration has already suggested it opposes an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Amid the worsening violence, speculation was hardening that a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs had killed Hashem Safieddine, who had been widely expected to succeed Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah. According to Lebanese security sources, Safieddine has been unreachable since Friday.
Assessments suggest that Safieddine was killed with aides and Iranian advisers in a powerful strike that has made reaching any bodies difficult. In the aftermath of the strike the IDF said it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters without disclosing who was present.
The fighting comes as Israel is preparing to mark the first anniversary on Monday of the devastating 7 October Hamas attack that prompted the current war in Gaza, which has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a dangerous regional crisis.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, will lead a memorial service in Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Hamas militants, amid fears that the anniversary may attract fresh attacks on Israeli citizens.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it was also ordering Palestinian civilians in some areas of the Gaza Strip – including Nuseirat and Bureij, which host large encampments of internally displaced people – to evacuate, saying that the IDF planned to act “with great force” against Hamas operating there.
Israel also appeared to be ramping up operations over the weekend in southern Lebanon, which its ground forces entered earlier this week.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it was opposing Israeli attempts to enter the southern town of Odaisseh, adding that clashes were ongoing.
As Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern Israel, there were direct hits in two buildings in Karmiel and near Acre, with reports of casualties from an impact on an apartment block in the Israeli-Arab village of Deir al-Asad.
Israel, which began ground operations targeting southern Lebanon this week, says they are focused on villages near the border and has said Beirut is “not on the table”, but has not specified how long the ground incursion will last.
It says the operation’s aim is to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments, which began on 8 October 2023, forced them to evacuate from its north.
Rapidly escalating violence in recent days has brought intense Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon as ground troops conducted raids near the border, transforming nearly a year of cross-border exchanges into full-blown war.
In the first reported Israeli airstrike on the northern Tripoli region in the current flare-up, Hamas said “Zionist bombardment” of the Beddawi refugee camp killed a commander, Saeed Atallah Ali, as well as his wife and two daughters on Saturday.
Amid mounting fears over the deepening region-wide crisis, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, renewed his call for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon on Saturday.
“The most important issue today is the ceasefire, especially in Lebanon and in Gaza,” he told reporters. “There are initiatives in this regard, there have been consultations that we hope will be successful.”