Israel is “preparing a response” to the missile attack launched on its territory by Iran on Tuesday, one of its military officials announced on Saturday, at a time when Israeli aircraft carried out new bombings in Lebanon, notably in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
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Tuesday’s Iranian attack, the second since April, led to threats of retaliation between Israel and Iran, stoking fears of a conflagration in the Middle East. Israel is “preparing a response,” an Israeli military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned on Friday that his allies, mainly Hezbollah and Hamas, would continue the fight against Israel, in a rare statement as the first anniversary of the unprecedented attack on Israel approached. Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, October 7, 2023 which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
After having weakened Hamas there during a devastating offensive still ongoing, Israel moved most of its operations to the Lebanese front in mid-September, where its troops began a ground operation against Hezbollah on Monday.
In the south of the country, Israeli soldiers “tried to advance again” and “the clashes continue,” the Lebanese movement said on Saturday.
He notably claimed to have fired rockets at the Ramat David air base near Haifa, in northern Israel, about 45 km from the border.
“More and stronger” strikes
At midday, new Israeli strikes shook the southern suburbs of Beirut, after more than a dozen during the night, according to the Lebanese news agency ANI.
The Israeli army, which launched massive bombings in the neighboring country on September 23, saying it was targeting Hezbollah targets, had called on residents to evacuate certain areas.
In the morning, flames were escaping from affected buildings, some of which collapsed, in the area, where residents hurriedly came to gather some belongings, noted an AFP photographer.
In a neighboring district, Abou Abbas, a 62-year-old restaurateur, says he is determined to stay at home despite the strikes “increasingly stronger every night and the terrifying noise of the raids”.
The army also indicated that it had bombed Hezbollah fighters “inside a mosque” in southern Lebanon during the night.
Hamas announced the death of one of its commanders and three members of his family in an Israeli strike 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 shelled the southern suburbs of the capital, targeting, according to the Israeli news site Ynet, Hachem Safieddine, potential successor at the head of the movement of Hassan Nasrallah, killed on September 27 in a raid Israeli in this sector.
More than 2,000 deaths in Lebanon in one year
Tehran claimed to have fired some 200 missiles towards Israel on Tuesday to respond to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, and the death on July 31 of Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in an explosion in Tehran blamed on Israel.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the operation as a “lesson” inflicted on Israel, receiving the head of Iranian diplomacy Abbas Araghchi on Saturday. The latter insisted on the need for a ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against attacking Iranian oil sites, with his predecessor and Republican candidate to succeed him, Donald Trump, suggesting strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The escalation in Lebanon comes after twelve months of cross-border firefights, following Hezbollah’s opening of a front against Israel in support of Hamas, which 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.
Around 1.2 million people were displaced by Israeli bombing, including 374,000 people, mainly Syrians, who fled to Syria, according to the same sources.
Deadly strikes in Gaza
The Israeli army has claimed to have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters and struck more than 2,000 of the movement’s sites since the launch of its ground offensive in southern Lebanon, where nine of its soldiers died in fighting.
The United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), deployed along the border, indicated on Saturday 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 Beirut’s southern suburbs, have suspended operations due to Israeli strikes, which Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers said killed 11 of their members in the south.
In the northern and central Gaza Strip, 12 people, including children, were killed by Israeli strikes overnight, medical sources and Civil Defense reported.
The Israeli army on Saturday launched a call to evacuate residents of a part of the center of the besieged territory – the first in weeks in Gaza -, indicating that it was preparing to act there “with force” against Hamas fighters .
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 UN.
