Smoke rises over Beirut’s southern suburbs, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon on October 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon on Saturday (October 5, 2024), hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs with 12 airstrikes and striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in northern Lebanon for the first time.

The attack on the Beddawi refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli killed an official with Hamas’s military wing, along with his wife and two young daughters, the Palesitnian militant group said in a statement. Tripoli is much farther north than the majority of Israel’s strikes, which have been concentrated in southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in October last year, in addition to most of the top leadership of Hezbollah.

At least six people were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday, according to National News Agency, Lebanon’s official news agency.

The Israeli military said special forces were carrying out targeted ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border. On Tuesday, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon. Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, the military said.

Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria fleeing Israeli strikes in less than two weeks, according to a Lebanese government committee. Associated Press journalists saw thousands of people continuing to cross the Masnaa Border Crossing on foot even after Israeli airstrikes left huge craters in the road leading up to it on Thursday.

Also on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least 9 people, including two children.

One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.

Another strike hit a house in the northern part of the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of people wounded, it said.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes, but it has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

The Israeli military warned Palestinians to evacuate along the strategic Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer. The military told people in parts of the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps to evacuate to Muwasi, an area along Gaza’s shore the military has designated a humanitarian zone.

It’s unclear how many Palestinians are currently living in the areas ordered evacuated, parts of which were evacuated previously.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the nearly year-long war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

New Delhi:

Israel continued ferocious rounds of airstrikes on Hezbollah’s key strongholds in southern Beirut in Lebanon today. These strikes, which began last night in the heart of the capital city, sent plumes of thick smoke billowing into the sky, sparking fear and chaos in densely populated civilian areas. The operations marked Israel’s most intense strikes on Beirut since shifting its military focus from Gaza to Lebanon earlier this week.

The targets of these attacks were alleged Hezbollah strongholds scattered throughout Lebanon, with devastating consequences, including the deaths of hundreds of people. While Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was the primary target, a Hezbollah source, according to news agency AFP, later claimed Nasrallah was “fine,” though he has remained in hiding for years to evade assassination attempts. Nasrallah, who holds immense power in Lebanon, particularly among his Shiite supporters, is widely seen as the only figure capable of waging war or brokering peace.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the strikes resulted in the deaths of Muhammad Ali Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, his deputy, and other senior officials of the Iran-backed militia. Ahmad Ahmad, a local resident who fled from his home in southern Beirut during the strikes, described the attack as feeling “like an earthquake”, as quoted by news agency AFP.

The strikes continued into a second bombing wave, during which Israel claimed to have targeted Hezbollah’s weapons depots stored within buildings in southern Beirut. Hezbollah denied this claim, while reports emerged of six buildings being levelled and 91 people wounded, with six confirmed dead. Following the strikes, Hezbollah retaliated by launching rockets into Israel, which prompted warnings from the Israeli military for civilians in Hezbollah strongholds to evacuate immediately.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Warning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, vowing that Israel would continue its military campaign against Hezbollah until the northern border was fully secured. He claimed that Israel has the right to defend itself, declaring that no reprieve would be given to Hezbollah, and hinting at a possible ground offensive in Lebanon.

Netanyahu also issued a stern warning to Tehran, accusing Iran of fueling the violence through its support of Hezbollah. “If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu warned, adding that Israel’s reach could extend throughout the Middle East if necessary.

As Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly, scores of diplomats walked out in protest. The devastating toll of the ongoing war in Gaza has drawn widespread condemnation, with more than 42,000 people reported dead in the besieged enclave. Entire neighbourhoods in Gaza have been reduced to rubble, with hundreds of thousands displaced. 

Nasrallah Targeted In Beirut 

The Friday evening Israeli airstrikes on southern Beirut were unprecedented in scale, reportedly involving tens of tons of explosives. Hezbollah’s top officials were thought to be present at the underground headquarters that were bombed, though reports from Hezbollah claimed that Nasrallah survived the strikes. Despite the extensive destruction, with entire buildings flattened, there was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s death, though speculation continued to swirl.

Israeli officials, however, expressed confidence that the strikes had seriously compromised Hezbollah’s command structure. In a televised statement, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed that the strike targeted Hezbollah’s central headquarters in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut. The IDF also revealed it had notified the US about the airstrikes while the operation was underway, but the United States was not involved.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in response to the Beirut strikes, condemned the attack as a “flagrant war crime,” further intensifying the already volatile situation.

The United Nations and international humanitarian organisations have sounded alarms over the deadly situation in Lebanon. “We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many fear that this is only the beginning,” said UN humanitarian coordinator Imran Riza, as quoted by news agency AFP.