The bombings targeted a top Hezbollah leader gathering in an underground bunker early Friday, as well as Hassan Nasrallah’s cousin
The Israeli military unleashed an intense bombing campaign against an underground bunker near Beirut early Friday in a bid to target Hashem Safieddine, a cousin and the presumed successor of the assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to three Israeli officials.
Israeli planes bombed a meeting of senior Hezbollah leaders outside the Lebanese capital, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The bombardment was one of the heaviest in the area since the war began last October, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency.
A series of loud explosions rocked the area near the Dahiya, the densely populated area south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, where Hezbollah holds sway. The shock waves rippled across the city, shaking buildings, and people at least 15 miles away could hear them. The fate of the Hezbollah leaders, including that of Mr. Safieddine, was not immediately clear.
The strikes came hours after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings on Thursday for 20 more towns and villages in southern Lebanon, signaling a potential expansion of its assault on Hezbollah as the death toll from an Israeli bombing in Beirut rose to nine.
Israel’s evacuation orders covered areas farther north than those in previous Israeli warnings and included Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon. The cities and towns lie above the upper boundary of a buffer zone that the United Nations established after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006.
The war has been threatening to expand even further as Israel weighs a possible strike on Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, after Tehran fired 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the assassinations of Mr. Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader, last week; Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh; and an Iranian commander.
Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain and France, shot down most of the missiles, but one man in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was killed.
Israeli officials have threatened a forceful response to Iran’s missile barrage, putting the Middle East even more on edge. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that Tehran “made a big mistake — and it will pay for it.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Iranian government had warned the United States that it would strike back if Israel retaliated. “Our response will be solely directed at the aggressor,” the mission said in a statement. “Should any country render assistance to the aggressor, it shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target.”
President Biden said on Wednesday that he would oppose an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and that Israel should respond “in proportion.” But on Thursday Mr. Biden, asked if he would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities, said: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little … anyway.” His remarks jolted oil markets, sending the price higher. There was no immediate comment from Israel or Iran.
Earlier on Thursday, the Lebanese Army said for the first time since the war began that it had returned fire with the Israeli military after one of its soldiers was killed by Israeli fire. Although the clash appeared to be contained, the exchange was a potentially dangerous development. Lebanon’s armed forces are backed and funded by the United States and are loyal to the state of Lebanon, not the Iranian-supported Hezbollah, and are not actively engaged in combat with the Israeli military.
The Israeli military has said it is attacking Hezbollah to stop it from firing rockets and drones into northern Israel so that the 60,000 Israelis who have evacuated can return. Hezbollah started targeting northern Israel more intensively nearly a year ago, in solidarity with Hamas after it led the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel and prompted the war in Gaza.
The military said it had struck about 200 targets in Lebanon overnight, including local government offices in a large town, Bint Jbeil, near the border with Israel, where it killed 15 people it described as Hezbollah fighters. About 190 rockets and other projectiles were also fired into Israel from Lebanon on Thursday; most were shot down or fell in open areas, according to the Israeli military.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, an Israeli fighter jet struck what the military called Palestinian militants in the city of Tulkarm. At least 18 people were killed, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said. The Israeli military later said that it had “eliminated” the head of the Hamas network in the city, along with other militants.
The attack was unusual because Israel typically has used drones, not jets, to strike in the West Bank since Oct. 7. And the toll was high for the West Bank, which is home to about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Suleiman Zuhairi, a former Palestinian deputy minister who lives on the outskirts of Tulkarm, said Israel had not carried out such a bombardment for years if not decades. “The blast was terrifying — my house trembled from the shock wave,” said Mr. Zuhairi, who added that he lived well away from the reported blast site.
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In its latest evacuation order in southern Lebanon, which has been heavily bombed by Israeli warplanes, the Israeli military told residents of 20 additional towns and cities to leave their homes immediately and not to move toward the Israeli border.
“Save your lives,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, wrote on social media. “Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, installations and combat equipment is putting his life at risk. Any house used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted.”
At least 1,600 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health officials (the numbers do not distinguish between civilians and combatants), and about one million people have been driven from their homes, according to the United Nations. The health ministry said that 37 people were killed and 151 injured in Israeli attacks across the country on Thursday alone.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in the Bachoura neighborhood of central Beirut, the Lebanese capital, hit a building hundreds of yards from the Lebanese Parliament and Western embassies. Nine rescue workers from a Hezbollah-affiliated civil defense group were killed and 14 others were wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Hassan Ammar, a retired teacher, said he was asleep in his apartment on the 10th floor of the building when the airstrike hit about 12:30 a.m.
“We heard multiple explosions hitting our building with a very, very loud sound,” said Mr. Ammar, 65. He said he and his wife ran downstairs to leave, but when they reached the second floor, they found the entire floor had been destroyed.
“I don’t feel safe in Beirut anymore,” Mr. Ammar said. “This is a destructive war.”
Two Israeli officials who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive information said the Israeli military had earlier on Thursday targeted the Hezbollah commander Rashid Shafti, who was in charge of the group’s telecommunications and computer division in Beirut. His condition was unclear.
The Israeli military also said that an airstrike on Wednesday had killed Haidar Al-Shahabiya, the Hezbollah commander it said was responsible for a rocket attack that killed a dozen children in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights this year.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said that another soldier had died in southern Lebanon, the ninth since it announced early Tuesday that its ground invasion into its northern neighbor had begun.
The Israeli military has not stopped its attacks in Gaza as the war there nears the one-year mark. On Thursday, the military said it had killed three top Hamas officials, including Rawhi Mushtaha, a close confidant of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader, in an airstrike three months ago. Hamas did not immediately comment.
Local health officials said at least 99 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza within 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday, one of the highest daily death tolls of the past three months.
