The strikes came soon after Netanyahu vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
BEIRUT: Israel launched airstrikes south of the Lebanese capital Beirut that it said targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters, moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting the terror group.
The attacks, heard across the city, sent huge clouds of smoke over the densely populated southern part of Beirut, the main stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagri said the strikes targeted Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” in the city’s southern suburbs.
The bombing came just moments after Netanyahu’s speech to delegates of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in which he vowed to continue attacks against Hezbollah and fight “until victory” against Hamas.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in deadly cross-border exchanges since the group’s Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Israeli aerial bombardments of Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon have killed nearly 700 people this week alone, according to the health ministry, but US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire have failed.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice and Israel has every right to repel this threat and send our citizens back home safely,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly. He added that the campaign against the Iran-backed terrorist group would continue “until we achieve our objectives.”
After nearly a year of war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel has turned its focus to its northern front with Lebanon, where a wave of aerial bombardment has led to the exodus of some 118,000 people.
On Friday, Lebanon’s national news agency said Israeli airstrikes had intensified overnight, and one attack killed a family of nine in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Tiberias, and said it was responding to “savage” attacks on Lebanese towns and villages.
‘Deadliest in a generation’
“Everything is collapsing around us,” said Anis Rubeiz, a 55-year-old Lebanese businessman.
“People are mentally exhausted … I don’t see (hope) on the horizon … or even a ray of light.
” The UN children’s agency condemned the violence, saying attacks on Lebanon were killing children at a “horrific rate”.
“We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many fear that this is just the beginning,” said Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon.
In Israel, too, many are tired of the violence.
“It’s incredibly tiring to be in this situation. We don’t really know what’s going to happen, whether there’s talk of a ground assault or a major operation,” said physiotherapy student Litel Shmuelovich.
Netanyahu also addressed the war in Gaza, saying Israel’s military would continue fighting Hamas until the Islamist movement was crushed.
“If Hamas stays in power, it will regroup… and attack Israel again and again… so Hamas has to go,” Netanyahu said, vowing to fight the group until “complete victory.”
Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were crucial to stopping the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink of full-blown war. But despite months of mediation efforts, a ceasefire in Gaza is still far from possible.
Hamas’ October 7 offensive killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, including the killing of hostages, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 hostages held by the militants, 97 are still in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israeli retaliatory military strikes have killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has described these figures as credible.
After the deadliest Hamas attack in Israel’s history, Netanyahu vowed to bring the hostages back home and crush Hamas.
This month, he said securing Israel’s border with Lebanon was also a war objective, in order to allow residents of northern Israel who have had to flee the region to return to their homes.
Hezbollah commander killed
For the fourth time in a week, Israel attacked Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, killing Mohammed Sarour, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit.
On Friday, Hezbollah held a funeral ceremony for Sarour.
The violence in Lebanon has raised fears of wider turmoil in the Middle East, as Iran-backed militants across the region vow to continue their battle with Israel.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, said in a televised address on Thursday that the Iran-backed group “will not hesitate to support Lebanon and Hezbollah”.
Five Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon’s Syrian border, according to state news agency SANA. Iran is a key ally of Syria, where it has helped prop up President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the civil war in 2011. Netanyahu took aim at Iran in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, saying: “I have a message for the dictators in Tehran. If you attack us, we will attack you.” He added: “There is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and this is true for the whole Middle East.” Analysts say Iran will try to resist being dragged into the conflict, but it is trying to support Hezbollah to avoid being dragged into a full-blown war and playing into the hands of its enemy.
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