Israel carried out another series of punishing airstrikes Friday, hitting suburban Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Hezbollah militant group.
The overnight blasts in Beirut's southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings kilometers (miles) away in the Lebanese capital. Additional strikes sent people running for cover in streets littered with rubble in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, where at least one building was leveled and cars were burned out.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah's central intelligence headquarters around midnight. It did not say who it was aiming for or if any militants were killed in that strike, but it claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area. 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.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday, the Israel military said.
The Israeli military also said that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division. The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.
Thursday’s strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Beirut, led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing — the first time it has been cut off since Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire almost a year ago.
Israel said it targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border. It said fighter jets had struck a tunnel used to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into Lebanon.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry through Syria from Iran, its main backer.
Associated Press video footage showed two huge craters on each side of the road. People got out of cars, unable to pass, carrying bags of their possessions as they crossed on foot. More than 250,000 Syrians and 82,000 Lebanese have fled across the border into Syria during the escalation of the past two weeks. There are a half-dozen crossings between the two countries, and most remain open.
Israel launched its ground escalation in Lebanon on Tuesday, and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. Israel has vowed to put an end to Hezbollah fire into northern Israel, after nearly a year of exchanges between the two sides that drove tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israeli strikes over the past two weeks killed some of Hezbollah’s key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On Thursday, Israel warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon, including areas beyond the buffer zone declared by the United Nations after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006.
Israeli Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Friday that the ground operations were limited, aimed at rooting out Hezbollah militants and making the border safe for northern residents of Israel to return to their homes,
“First of all, our mission is to make sure they’re (Hezbollah) not there," Shoshani said. "Afterwards we will talk about how we make sure they don’t come back.”
Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.
Two more soldiers were killed and two were severely wounded by a drone attack in northern Israel, military officials said.
An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it carried out three drone strikes Friday in northern Israel. In recent months, the group has regularly claimed drone strikes launched at Israel, but the strikes have rarely landed.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was in Beirut on Friday to meet Lebanese officials, warned that if Israel carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran would retaliate more powerfully than it did this week when it launched at least 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.
The missile barrage amid a series of rapidly escalating attacks has threatened to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Araghchi said after meeting Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri.
In the Iranian capital, Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers and delivered a speech in which he praised the country’s missile strikes on Israel and said Iran was prepared to conduct more strikes if needed.
He spoke to thousands of people at Tehran’s main prayer site, the Mosalla mosque, which was decorated with a huge Palestinian flag.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel the day after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which the militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Since then, Israel's campaign in Gaza in retaliation has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, just over half them women and children, according to local health officials.
Meanwhile, Israel carried out its deadliest strike in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war began, hitting a cafe in the Tulkarem refugee camp. At least 18 Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Relatives said a family of four, including two children, were among the dead. The Israeli military said several Hamas militants were killed, including the group's leader in the camp.
The Israeli military said Friday that militants in Gaza fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has seen rocket fire from the territory in a month.
The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system and the other fell in an open area near a kibbutz across the border from Gaza.
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20 Comments
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falseflagsteve
So much war hatred and death all due to religion. Makes me so ruddy cross.
sakurasuki
After Belgium, who else?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/belgian-pm-says-he-is-rallying-eu-countries-to-impose-trade-sanctions-on-israel/
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/belgian-politician-criticizes-european-commission-chief-s-double-standards-over-israeli-attacks/3349676
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/belgium-urges-sanctions-on-israel-amid-gaza-offensive/3279186
Tamarama
Well, all I can say at this point is lucky for Israel they have the US as their allies.
The ally that funds and arms them, the ally that protects and enables them at the UN, the ally that, when they kill and bomb tens of thousands of people in the region says things like; 'We are looking into the matter.' 'We are waiting for more details.' 'We are trying to verify these reports,' and as soon as anyone shoots back at them, they suddenly condemn in the strongest language they have, threaten and in some cases attack themselves.
Hypocrisy and shame.
For the US it's all about power, control and hegemony, nothing else.
Banthu
Netenyahu is merely acting on the precedence set by Putin.
Shouldn't Netenyahu face the same sanctions and asset seizures that Russia faces.
Perhaps Israel's treasure trove of assets should be seized and transferred to the Palestinians and Lebanon.
Strangerland
No. While it’s arguable that Israel has overreacted, the fact remains that their innocent civilians were killed by a foreign military invasion, same as Ukraine.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Complete lack of acknowledgement of the other war going on noted.
Hercolobus
War is the easiest way to fleece a country’s coffers.
i am nobody to say this.
it was USMC Major General Smedley D Butler who said it in his essay “War is a Racket”, read at:
https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Wick's pencil
Though the two conflicts are very different, Israel should be sanctioned at least at the same level as Russia, ideally much more so.
Capuchin
So the fact that innocent Palestinian civilians were being killed, humiliated and denied their most basic human rights every single day for decades by a foreign military occupation doesn't factor into things in any way?
It's arguable that an event like Oct 7th is the logical conclusion and obvious consequence of Israel's endless brutal occupation.
Not an "over reaction" it's outrage that a population they've treated like less than animals for decades would dare threaten their impunity and sense of superiority.
The bully got a black eye and now he's angry about it. Doesn't justify him being an awful bully.
Alfie Noakes
At the US Vice-presidential debate last week Harris' running mate Tim Walz said, "The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States..."
https://x.com/TrackAIPAC/status/1841559169184497955
They couldn't really be more explicit if they tried, and yet people still try to deny that the US is behind the genocide, land theft, mass murder and ethnic cleansing.
Tamarama
Taiwan is not China.....or is it?
Pray tell the topic of this article you are commenting on here?
And what of the preceding 70 odd years of Israeli brutality, oppression, theft and death visited upon the Palestinian people? Not so innocent.
WoodyLee
""In the Iranian capital, Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers and delivered a speech in which he praised the country’s missile strikes on Israel and said Iran was prepared to conduct more strikes if needed.
He spoke to thousands of people at Tehran’s main prayer site, the Mosalla mosque, which was decorated with a huge Palestinian flag.""
Yesterday Iran had it's ENTIRE LEADERSHIP ( Political and Military ) on display and out in the open for 2 hours for Bibi and his war mongers to Target and kill who ever they wish but he didn't dare to do it !! as one western analyst put it "" Bibi couldn't ask for a much better opportunity to retaliate against Iran's missile attacks, this proves that Iran leadership is not afraid of Israel and ready to go for an all out war with Israel if needed""
TaiwanIsNotChina
He obviously mispoke. I don't know what proxies people think Israel has.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I'm allowed to point out inconsistency in general.
JeffLee
Yeah, love the equivalency, man! Let's see... Israel is pursuing an enemy that's been firing hundreds rockets into its residential areas over the past several months and another enemy that killed, raped and captured hundreds of kids at a music festival.
So....Russia, huh. You're going to have to tell us about all the evils perpetrated by the Ukrainians on the Russians in the lead up to their war.
TaiwanIsNotChina
If people had listened to him Europe and Asia would now be speaking German.
The Ripper!
I guess the terrorists bit off more than they could chew in attacking Israeli civilians.
WoodyLee
Almost a year on and Hamas is still kicking a$$ and fighting the invaders, Hezbollah is finishing the Job and will revenge the death of the 43,000 Palestinians mostly Children, Infants, and Women and this war is no where near the end.
Bibi and his war criminals team will end up negotiating a deal to end the fighting at some point and face Justice.
Hamas will still be there, Hezbollah will still be there, and Israel will still be there.
NB
The solution for the Middle East crisis is coexistence between the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli Jews. It should be an equitable coexistence wherein both nations can feel secure, fulfill their sentiments towards the land as much as possible, and enjoy enough space for agriculture, housing and economy.
bo
We can only hope that Israel does what we all want and rid the world of the muslim fanatic terrorists .Let this be a lesson to the free world .
bass4funk
They are doing what they can, but Iran and Hezbollah it seems are creating more martyrs because this won't help or save them, they will never win this, ever.