Huge air strikes hit Beirut as Israel says it targeted Hezbollah headquarters
Watch: BBC correspondent records moment air strike hits Beirut
- Published
Israel has launched a series of huge air strikes in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, targeting what it says is Hezbollah’s central headquarters.
At least two people have been killed and 76 injured, according to Lebanese officials, after several buildings were hit in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the south of the city.
BBC reporters in Beirut said explosions were followed by chaotic scenes with nearby roads packed with people fleeing. The Israeli military said the headquarters it targeted was located "under residential buildings".
Israeli and US media said the strike targeted Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. It was too early to say if Nasrallah was hit, an Israeli official told reporters.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told state TV that Israel was crossing Tehran's red lines.
"Assassinations will not solve Israel's problem... With the assassination of resistance leaders, others will take their place," he told state TV, Reuters reported.
Iran's embassy in Beirut meanwhile said the strike on Dahieh was a "dangerous game changer".
The attack took place shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “defeat Hezbollah” in a speech at the UN.
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said it showed Israel "does not care" about US-led efforts to bring about a ceasefire.
Israel has sharply escalated its campaign against the Lebanese armed group, with which it has been trading cross-border fire for nearly a year.
Air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon this week have killed nearly 800 people, many of them civilians, Lebanese officials say.
The US had no advance warning of Israel's attack on Dahieh, the Pentagon said.
Hezbollah continued firing into Israel on Friday evening, with air raid alerts sounding in multiple areas in the north of the country.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a "direct hit from a Hezbollah rocket was identified" on a house and car in the city of Safed.
On Thursday allies including the US, UK and EU called for a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon. The 12-strong bloc proposed an immediate 21-day pause in fighting "to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement" and a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
However in his UN General Assembly speech Netanyahu said Israel would continue attacking Hezbollah to achieve its goal of returning about 70,000 displaced Israelis to their homes in northern Israel.
"As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice. And Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that's exactly what we're doing," he told the UN.
Netanyahu's office later said he had cut short his trip to the US and was returning to Israel.
In his own speech to the UN on Thursday, Mikati warned that hospitals were no longer capable of treating people because of the sheer number of casualties from Israel’s attacks.
"Israel is violating our sovereignty by sending their war planes and drones to our skies, by killing our civilians, including youth, women and children, destroying homes and forcing families to flee under harsh humanitarian conditions," he said.
In Lebanon, around 90,000 people have been displaced since Monday, adding to the 110,000 who had fled their homes already, according to the UN.
The strikes hit the densely populated Dahieh area, a Hezbollah stronghold
Tensions have been growing across the Middle East since Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages. Israel's military response has since killed more than 41,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on 8 October, saying it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinian group. The group, proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries, has launched more than 8,000 rockets at northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It has also fired anti-tank missiles at armoured vehicles and attacked military targets with explosive drones.
Israel had responded with thousands of its own air, drone and artillery strikes targeting Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon before ramping up its bombardment this week.