Israel-Lebanon: Israel launches new strikes on Beirut after targeting Hezbollah HQs

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has led the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades and transformed it into one of the most powerful paramilitary groups in the Middle East.

Israeli airstrikes yesterday knocked out six buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Harek Hreik, the largest strike in the Lebanese capital in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said the strike, which killed and wounded dozens of people, hit the headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut. Three major Israeli TV channels said Nasrallah was the target of the strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which has not been officially confirmed by Israel. Hezbollah officials did not comment.

The Israeli military launched a fresh wave of pre-dawn attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon today.

Israel Defence Force warned residents living near “Hezbollah interests” in the Dahiyeh district of southern Beirut to evacuate immediately by at least 500m.

The military claims it attacked Hezbollah “in the Bekaa, deep in Lebanon”. It also bombed Burj el-Barajneh, al-Kafaat, Hadath, Laylaki, Choueifat, and Ghobeiry areas in southern Beirut, as well as targets near Beirut airport, Al Jazeera reported.

Police in Norway are searching for an Indian-origin Norwegian man in connection with the sale of pagers to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that exploded last week.

At least 39 people, including children, were killed and 3,000 injured after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon in what is widely suspected to have been an Israeli attack.

Authorities have issued an international search warrant for Rinson Jose, the 39-year-old founder of a Bulgarian company that is alleged to be part of the pager supply chain.

Mr Jose’s company claimed he had been missing since traveling to Boston last week for a conference. “I can confirm that we have an employee who went to a conference in Boston whom we have been unable to contact since Wednesday last week,” Amund Djuve, chief executive of DN Media group, told Onmanorama.

The UK has joined the US and France and several other allies in calling for a 21-day ceasefire in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

At least 720 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon this week, as Israel carried out an extensive bombing campaign days after a pair of attacks caused pagers and walkie-talkies to explode.

The UK, US, France, have been joined by nine other countries – Australia, Canada, European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar – in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.

In a joint statement, they described the situation in Lebanon as “intolerable” and in “nobody’s interest”.

“It is time to conclude a diplomatic settlement that enables civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety,” the statement said.

At least 720 people, including dozens of women and children, have been killed in Israel’s week-long airstrike on Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said.

The Israeli military has struck Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut in a series of massive explosions that targeted the leader of the militant group and leveled multiple high-rise apartment buildings.

The biggest blast to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year appeared likely to push the escalating conflict closer to full-fledged war, and at least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, according to Lebanon officials.

The toll is likely to rise significantly as teams are still combing through the rubble of six buildings.

The Israeli military today said it detected the launch of 10 rockets fired at Upper Galilee in northern Israel and intercepted some of them.

The military in a post on X said it “continues to attack, damage and degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and infrastructure in Lebanon”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled to the world from the UN that the multiple conflicts in the Middle East were far from resolved, and he vowed to continue battling Hezbollah in Lebanon and defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip until “total victory”.

“Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Mr Netanyahu said. “We’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met,” he said.

Shortly after his speech, blasts rocked Beirut and the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah’s headquarters.

The attack appeared to target Hezbollah’s leader and prompted Mr Netanyahu to cut short his trip to New York by a day and make unusual travel on the Jewish Sabbath to get home.

A fresh wave of air raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs today as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Iran-backed movement’s command centre that apparently targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.

There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate.

But a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable, and the Lebanese armed group had not made a statement.

“I think it’s too early to say… Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” an Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.

Jordan’s foreign minister said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be stopped because he was driving the region to a full-fledged war.

“It is time to face the truth, and the truth is, unless Netanyahu is stopped, unless this government is stopped, war will encompass all of us,” Ayman Safadi told reporters before a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the airstrikes had increased the risk of the situation spiralling out of control.

“We believe very, very, very strongly that a ceasefire is necessary, that the guns are not going to solve anything, that we need to move towards a peace in our region, and that peace is firmly rooted in addressing the Palestinian issue,” bin Farhan said.