Dozens of Israeli warplanes carried out intense bombardments Saturday against southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, a day after an Israeli strike that decapitated the elite unit of the Lebanese movement and left a total of 45 dead. This escalation, which has raised fears of a full-scale war, prompted Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to cancel his trip to the United Nations in New York, calling for “an end to the terrible Israeli massacres.”
Hezbollah, a powerful political and military player in Lebanon, opened a front with neighboring Israel in “support” of Hamas, its ally, the day after the start of the war in Gaza triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023.
Key information to remember
⇒ Israeli strike near Beirut leaves 45 dead, according to new official report
⇒ Hezbollah claims to have targeted Israeli military industrial complexes
⇒ The United States calls on its citizens to evacuate Lebanon as long as there are commercial flights
Middle East on brink of ‘catastrophe’, solution not military, says UN official
The UN representative in Lebanon warned on Sunday of an “imminent catastrophe” in the Middle East, in the midst of a military escalation between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, saying that the solution was not military. “As the region stands on the brink of imminent catastrophe, we cannot say it enough: there is NO military solution to make either side safer,” the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said on X.
Israeli strike near Beirut leaves 45 dead, new official toll shows
The death toll from the Israeli strike that targeted Hezbollah’s elite unit in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday has risen to 45, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced on Sunday. “The death toll stands at 45,” the ministry said in a statement, compared to 37 previously. Operations “continue to clear the rubble for the third consecutive day” and DNA samples are being taken to determine the identity of some of the victims, it added.
Hezbollah claims to have targeted Israeli military industrial complexes
Hezbollah said Sunday it had targeted Israeli military production facilities in response to deadly explosions this week that hit its communications equipment. “In a first response” to the explosions Tuesday and Wednesday in Lebanon of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members and attributed to Israel, the Lebanese Islamist movement said in a statement that it had “bombed the Rafael military industry complexes” in northern Israel with “dozens” of rockets.
The Shiite movement also claimed to have targeted the “Ramat David base and airport,” located about 45 kilometers from the border, twice during the night, using “dozens” of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets, in response to “repeated Israeli attacks that targeted different Lebanese regions and caused the death of many civilians.” The Ramat David site is one of the furthest from the Lebanese border that Hezbollah has said it has targeted in nearly a year of cross-border firefights.
Israeli army says it is hitting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The Israeli army said it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday morning, after the Islamist movement fired dozens of rockets at populated areas in northern Israel. “The Israeli army is currently striking targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon,” the army said in a statement, adding that the Lebanese armed movement had fired approximately 115 projectiles in the past few hours “towards civilian areas in northern Israel.”
Israel: Hundreds of thousands in air raid shelters
The Israeli military announced that 115 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday morning, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to take refuge in air raid shelters and authorities to order the closure of schools in the north of the country.
“About 85 projectiles were identified as crossing into Israeli territory from Lebanon” shortly after 6 a.m., and “about 20” in a previous salvo shortly before 5 a.m., the army said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to take refuge in air raid shelters in northern Israel,” army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told AFP.
The army said the rocket salvo fired by Hezbollah had sparked fires. Israeli emergency services reported at least four people injured by shrapnel, three of them near the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
US calls on citizens to evacuate Lebanon as long as commercial flights continue
Washington on Saturday urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial options remain available, amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. “Due to the unpredictable nature of the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and the recent explosions across Lebanon, including in Beirut, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial options remain available,” the State Department said.
Demonstration in Tel Aviv to demand release of Gaza hostages
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv again Saturday night to criticize the lack of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that would lead to the release of hostages taken in the October 7 attack. The weekly protests have become more critical of the government since Israeli officials announced earlier this month that the bodies of six hostages had been found in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel orders 45-day closure of Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah
Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces raided its offices in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.
An Israeli soldier told bureau chief Walid al-Omar: “There is a court order to close Al-Jazeera for 45 days,” the channel reported, citing the conversation that was broadcast live. “I ask you to take all your cameras and leave the office immediately,” the soldier continued. According to the channel’s footage, the soldiers entered wearing masks and heavily armed. Al-Jazeera said they did not give a reason for the closure order. Walid al-Omar, however, said that Al Jazeera is accused in the closure order of “inciting and supporting terrorism,” according to the channel.