One of its military officials announced on Saturday that Israel is “preparing a response” to the missile attack launched by Iran on its territory on Tuesday, at a time when Israeli aircraft carried out new bombings in Lebanon, especially in the southern suburbs of Beirut. A stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
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Tuesday's Iranian attack, the second since April, led to threats of retaliation between Israel and Iran, raising fears of a conflagration in the Middle East. An Israeli military official told AFP that Israel is “preparing to respond.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned on Friday that his allies, especially Hezbollah and Hamas, will continue their fight against Israel, in a rare statement as the one-year anniversary of the unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 approaches. 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
After weakening Hamas there during the devastating offensive that is still ongoing, Israel, in mid-September, moved most of its operations to the Lebanese front, where its forces began a ground operation against Hezbollah on Monday.
In the south of the country, “Israeli soldiers tried to advance again” and “clashes are continuing,” according to what the Lebanese movement announced on Saturday.
He specifically claimed to have fired missiles at the Ramat David air base near Haifa, in northern Israel, about 45 km from the border.
“More and stronger” blows.
At midday, new Israeli raids rocked the southern suburb of Beirut, after more than twelve at night, according to the Lebanese News Agency.
The Israeli military, which launched large-scale bombings in the neighboring country on September 23, saying it was targeting Hezbollah targets, ordered residents to evacuate certain areas.
In the morning, flames were rising from damaged buildings, some of which had collapsed, in the area, as residents hurriedly came to collect some of their belongings, according to an Agence France-Presse photographer.
In a nearby area, Abu Abbas, a 62-year-old restaurant owner, says he is determined to stay in his home despite the strikes “which are getting stronger every night and the terrifying noise of the raids.”
The army also indicated that it bombed Hezbollah fighters “inside a mosque” in southern Lebanon during the night.
For its part, Hamas announced the killing of one of its leaders and three members of his family in an Israeli raid on a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the first in this region in a year.
The previous night, the Israeli army had already bombed the southern suburbs of the capital, targeting, according to the Israeli “Ynet” news site, Hashem Safi al-Din, the potential successor at the head of Hassan Nasrallah’s movement, who was killed last September 27 in an Israeli raid. In this sector.
More than 2,000 deaths in Lebanon in one year
Tehran claimed to have fired about 200 missiles toward Israel on Tuesday in response to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, and the July 31 killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in an explosion in Tehran that was blamed on Israel.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the operation as a “lesson” for Israel, during his meeting on Saturday with the head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araqchi. The latter stressed the necessity of a ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden advised Israel not to attack Iranian oil sites, while his predecessor and the Republican candidate to succeed him, Donald Trump, suggested directing strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The escalation in Lebanon comes after twelve months of cross-border firefights following Hezbollah opening a front against Israel in support of Hamas, a conflict that displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.
According to the Lebanese authorities, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, including more than a thousand since September 23.
About 1.2 million people were displaced as a result of the Israeli bombing, including 374,000 people, most of them Syrians, who fled to Syria, according to the same sources.
Deadly strikes in Gaza
The Israeli army claimed to have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters and struck more than 2,000 of the movement's positions since launching its ground offensive in southern Lebanon, with nine of its soldiers killed in the fighting.
On Saturday, the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), deployed along the border, indicated that it was maintaining its positions there despite an Israeli request to “move some of them.”
At least four hospitals in Lebanon, including one near the southern suburb of Beirut, have suspended operations due to Israeli raids that Hezbollah rescue workers said killed 11 of their members in the south.
Medical and civil defense sources reported that 12 people, including children, were martyred in the northern and central Gaza Strip, in Israeli raids overnight.
On Saturday, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of residents from part of the center of the besieged area — the first in weeks in Gaza — signaling that it was preparing to act there “with force” against Hamas militants.
Since the start of the war, 41,825 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the latest report from the Hamas government's Ministry of Health, whose data is considered reliable by the United Nations.
