View of damaged buildings after Israeli attacks in Laylaki and Haret Hireyk neighborhood of Dahieh district in Beirut, Lebanon on October 1, 2024.
Houssam Shbaro | Anadolu | Getty Images
Israel hit what it said was a Hezbollah weapons facility in southern Beirut on Saturday after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into northern Israel and a spokesman said a drone was launched at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s country home.
Netanyahu was not there at the time and it was not immediately clear if the building was hit. But he described it as an assassination attempt by “Iran’s Hezbollah proxy” and called it a “serious mistake” as Israel prepares to retaliate for a barrage of Iranian missiles earlier this month.
The strikes came as doctors and Hamas media in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting to root out the Palestinian militant group for more than a year, said Israeli shelling had killed more than 100 people across the coastal enclave and the siege around three hospitals had tightened. .
Promises by Israel and the enemies of Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting have frozen the hopes that his death Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar on Wednesday may lead to ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon and prevent further escalation in the Middle East.
Officials, diplomats and other sources say that as the US election approaches, Israel is looking for to use intensive military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure that its adversaries cannot regroup.
On Saturday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza with a picture of Sinwar and the message: “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza.”
Israeli strikes later Saturday on a high-rise building in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya killed at least 73 people and wounded dozens, medics and Hamas media said.
The Israeli military is checking reports of casualties from an airstrike in northern Gaza, an Israeli official said, adding that a preliminary examination showed the numbers were exaggerated and did not match the information it received.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Israel carried out heavy strikes in several locations, leaving thick smoke hanging over the city into the evening.
The strikes targeted “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and a command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters,” the Israeli military said.
Israel had issued evacuation orders for four separate neighborhoods in the suburbs, telling residents to move 500 meters (yards) away, but carried out strikes in other areas as well, witnesses said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the southern suburbs – once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground facilities – since Israel began regular strikes there about three weeks ago.
An Israeli airstrike on September 27 killed Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallahand strikes nearby have killed other top officials from the Iran-backed group.
The United States would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around Beirut, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
New area hit
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed two people as they traveled on Lebanon’s main highway near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
Another attack killed at least four people in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, health authorities said. One of them was the mayor of a nearby town, Mr second mayor to be killed this week.
A series of Hezbollah rocket blasts in Israel killed one person and injured at least nine, Israel’s ambulance service said.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on any drone strike targeting Netanyahu’s home in the northern Israeli city of Caesarea, which the prime minister said was aimed at killing him and his wife.
Last year’s conflict sparked direct confrontations between Iran and Israel, including missile attacks on Israel in April and October 1.
Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the October ballistic missile attack.
“I say to Iran and its proxies in the axis of evil: Anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel will pay a heavy price,” he said in a statement after the Caesarea attack.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement: “We have already responded to the Israeli regime and the action in question has been carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
Talks stopped
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel since the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza began last October. On Saturday alone, Hezbollah fired about 200 “missiles,” the Israeli military said.
Almost three weeks ago, Israel launched a ground offensive inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilize the border area for its citizens who had fled the fighting.
Israel’s military announced on Saturday that it had destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon. It also said it killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in Bid Jbeil district on Friday.
The Israeli military has launched an investigation into the death of a Hezbollah prisoner in Lebanon, Israeli media reported.
Since October 2023, more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them in the last month, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack that sparked the war, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s military response has left more than 42,500 dead, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli offensive has left most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people homeless, caused by widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that oversees administration in the Palestinian Territories, has stepped up aid deliveries to Gaza amid international pressure. Israel and the United Arab Emirates airdropped aid into southern Gaza on Saturday.
Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have said Shinwar’s death offered an opportunity for a Gaza ceasefire deal and the release of the remaining hostages.
Negotiations for such a deal have been stalled for weeks. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who led the diplomatic effort, is expected to travel to Israel on Tuesday as part of a regional tour, Axios reported on social media platform X.