An aeroplane flies as smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on September 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli military said it launched new strikes on Saturday (September 28, 2024) targeting Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon after intense bombardments on the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut overnight.

“The IDF [military] is currently striking terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the area of Beqaa” in eastern Lebanon, it said in a statement. It added that sirens sounded in northern Israel, after Hezbollah said it struck there.

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Meanwhile, Hezbollah on Saturday claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel, the first after heavy Israeli strikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight.

“Defending Lebanon and its people, and responding to the barbaric” Israeli attacks “on cities and villages and civilians”, Hezbollah fighters targeted kibbutz Kabri in northern Israel “with a salvo of Fadi-1 rockets”, the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military claimed to have struck Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut on Friday (September 27, 2024) in a series of massive explosions that targeted the leader of the militant group and levelled multiple high-rise apartment buildings.

At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. It was the biggest blast to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year and appeared likely to push the escalating conflict closer to full-fledged war.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strikes, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, including one United States official.

The death toll is likely to rise significantly as teams comb through the rubble of six buildings.