Israel strikes Hezbollah intelligence HQ in Beirut as IDF orders new evacuation of villages north of UN’s buffer zone signalling possible expansion of Lebanon invasion

Israel today attacked Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the heart of Beirut as it ordered civilians in Lebanese villages north of the UN buffer zone to evacuate ‘immediately’.

Israeli fighter jets “hit targets at Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut, including terrorist operatives belonging to the unit, intelligence collection assets, command centers and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the military said in a statement.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, with a source close to Hezbollah telling AFP that the target was an evacuated building housing the group’s media relations office.

The IDF separately warned the Lebanese people to evacuate more than 20 villages and the city of Nabatiyeh, all of which are north of the UN buffer zone.

“For your own safety, you should immediately evacuate your homes and move north of the Awali River. Save your lives,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

The airstrikes in the heart of Lebanon’s capital and the possible extension of Israel’s invasion of its neighbor come after days of heavy bombardment of areas in southern Lebanon, killing more than a thousand people and forcing hundreds to flee their homes. escape.

A man takes a photo as smoke rises from a damaged building after Israeli airstrikes in Dahieh, a southern suburb controlled by Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon

The IDF carries out ‘ground attacks’ in southern Lebanon

Israel, which remains at war in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, says it has shifted its focus to securing its northern border and ensuring the safe return of more than 60,000 people captured by Hezbollah over the past year. attacks are displaced with ‘ground attacks’.

These raids have resulted in bitter fighting between Hezbollah and the IDF.

Hezbollah said it rebuffed an attempt by Israeli forces to advance to the Fatima Gate on the border.

It also said it fired two explosives against advancing Israeli forces as it continued its cross-border rocket fire.

The army said an overnight attack killed 15 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil, an area badly damaged during Israel’s last war with the militant group in 2006.

Later, the Lebanese army said one of its soldiers was killed when “the Israeli enemy attacked an army post in the Bint Jbeil area” – the third death among its troops in the current escalation – prompting retaliatory fire.

A Lebanese military official said this was the army’s first response to Israeli fire since October last year.

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon

A look at the damage caused by previous Israeli airstrikes as smoke rises over Beirut’s southern suburbs

Israel, which remains at war in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack, says it has shifted its focus to securing its northern border and ensuring the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by the attacks by Hezbollah.

Israel earlier carried out a deadly airstrike in central Beirut, hitting a rescue facility run by Hezbollah’s emergency services, killing seven workers, the agency said.

Hassan Ammar, 82, who stayed in the high-rise building whose walls were partially blown away by the attack after he fled southern Lebanon, said: “We are peaceful citizens in our homes.”

Israel has not yet commented on the attack, but says it has hit about 200 Hezbollah targets “on Lebanese territory.”

More than 40 rescue workers and firefighters have been killed by Israeli fire in three days, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad.

The final fighting between Hezbollah and Israel came afterwards Hezbollah backer Iran launched its second direct missile attack on Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay.

As Israel considers retaliation for the Iranian missile attack, US President Joe Biden said his country “fully supported” the ally but ruled out backing an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran, which arms and finances Lebanese Hezbollah, said it would intensify its response if Israel counterattacked.

An activist holds an animal cage amid the rubble of a building damaged in Israeli attacks as she searches for abandoned cats in Beirut’s southern suburbs

A man inspects the damage at the Bachoura cemetery, which was damaged during an Israeli attack

A view of a destroyed building after the Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon on October 3, 2024

Smoke rises after the Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon on October 3, 2024

Israel’s ground operations and attacks follow the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders in a massive bombing in southern Beirut.

Israel intercepted most of the 200 missiles launched by Iran. A Palestinian was killed by shrapnel in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “those who attack the State of Israel will pay a high price,” while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of a “stronger” response.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the rockets were fired in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah alongside that of a general of the Guard’s Quds Force, and for the July killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

A day after the army said it would launch ground operations in southern Lebanon, Israel on Wednesday reported the first death of a soldier in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a toll that later rose to eight deaths.

The Israeli army said it had deployed a second division to support the fighting.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 46 people were killed and 85 others injured by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah’s media office on October 3, 2024

People and members of the press look at a damaged building at the site of an Israeli attack on the Bachoura neighborhood of central Beirut

A view of the damage to the cemetery after Israeli warplanes struck a building in the Bachoura area of ​​Beirut, Lebanon

The war has also spread to neighboring Syria, where an Israeli attack in Damascus killed four people, including Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir, Nasrallah’s son-in-law, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to Iranian media, a military ‘adviser’ to the Revolutionary Guards in Syria, Majid Divani, succumbed on Thursday to injuries sustained during an Israeli attack on Damascus earlier this week.

In Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, Liron Yori, 22, said he was worried about “where the war is going and I don’t feel comfortable about it.”

The fighting comes as many Israelis celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Thursday.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an end to the “sickening cycle of escalation” in the Middle East and the G7 group of rich countries said a diplomatic solution was “still possible”.

But months of similar calls and mediation efforts have so far failed to lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hezbollah began attacks on Israeli forces a day after Hamas carried out its attack on Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures, including hostages held in captivity have died.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to Health Ministry figures in the Hamas-held territory. The UN has described the figures as reliable.