Israel again targets Beirut after raiding Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT – Israel once again attacked Beirut on Oct 1, with the state-run news agency reporting air strikes on two buildings in the Lebanese capital’s densely populated southern suburbs, just hours after Israeli commandos raided Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Iran was set to respond to these attacks on Hezbollah by launching a ballistic missile into Israel, according to a senior White House official.

The official said the US was “actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack”, warning that a direct attack against Israel “will carry severe consequences for Iran”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a “violent enemy strike” pummelled a building near the Zahraa Hospital in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, and then another building near the Kuwaiti embassy minutes later.

The air strikes on Beirut came hours after skirmishes were reported between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, marking the start of an uncertain new phase of Israel’s decades-long conflict with Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said the operations in Lebanon began on the night of Sept 30 and involved paratroops and commandos from the elite 98th division, which was deployed to the northern front two weeks ago from Gaza where they had been fighting for months.

It said its air force and artillery supported ground troops engaged in “limited, localised and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanese villages that posed “an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.

The raids went only a short distance over the border, an Israeli security official said, adding that no direct clashes with Hezbollah fighters were reported.

But the Israeli military said on Oct 1 that it was calling up four additional reserve brigades for “operational missions”, suggesting plans for deeper incursions into southern Lebanon.

Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces have been carrying out raids into southern Lebanon for months, uncovering Hezbollah tunnels and weapons caches under homes, as well as invasion plans by the group.

They uncovered plans by Hezbollah to enter Israel and carry out an attack similar to the one led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Israel on Oct 7 last year that triggered the current conflicts, he said.

Hezbollah said on Oct 1 that it fired Fadi 4 missiles at military positions in the suburbs of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv. 

It added that it also targeted the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, and a military intelligence unit on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The escalation is causing international alarm.

A large-scale ground invasion of Lebanon would only result in greater suffering, Ms Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the United Nations rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

“With armed violence between Israel and Hezbollah boiling over, the consequences for civilians have already been terrible,” she said.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Israel should avoid a repeat of the past and not get “bogged down in a quagmire” in Lebanon.Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Israel should stop conducting ground raids in southern Lebanon to prevent an escalation of the conflict enveloping the wider region.

Lebanon is facing one of the most dangerous stages in its history, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Oct 1 during a meeting with UN organisations and ambassadors of donor countries, in which they made a joint appeal for US$426 million (S$548 million) in aid to cope with surging hostilities.

Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful Middle East proxy, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week, eliminating a towering figure who turned it into Lebanon’s top military and political force.

Despite its biggest successes against Hezbollah in decades, Israel has indicated it is primed for a full-fledged invasion of Lebanon with the stated aim of enabling thousands of its citizens who fled Hezbollah rockets to safely return to their communities near the northern border.

Israel’s strikes have displaced one million Lebanese from their homes and killed more than 1,100 people, the Lebanese authorities have said. A looming ground offensive has sparked fear and anger in Lebanon.

“Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Mr Abu Alaa, a resident of the southern port city of Sidon.

Lebanese army pulls back

Iran’s allies – from Hezbollah to Yemen’s Houthis to armed groups in Iraq – have weighed in with attacks in the region in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza war, raising fears that the conflict will engulf the Middle East and suck in the US and Tehran.

Yemen’s Houthi movement targeted Israeli military posts in Tel Aviv and Eilat with drones on Oct 1, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead. Flares were repeatedly launched over the Lebanese border town of Rmeish, lighting up the night sky.

An Israeli strike in Lebanon early on Oct 1 targeted Mounir Maqdah, commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, according to two Palestinian security officials.

His fate was unknown.

The strike hit a building in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, the sources said. It marked the first strike on Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp since cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel broke out nearly a year ago.

In Syria, three civilians were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli air strike on the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said on Oct 1, citing a military source. Israel’s military said it does not comment on foreign media reports.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up raids since Hamas attacked Israel’s southern territory on Oct 7, 2023.

More than 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were killed in that assault. Hamas took over 250 hostages.

That set off the war that has devastated Gaza, displacing most of the enclave’s 2.3 million population and leaving more than 41,600 Palestinians dead.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sept 30, the Department of Defence said.

“They agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hezbollah cannot conduct Oct 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” the department said in a statement.

Mr Austin reaffirmed that a diplomatic resolution is required to ensure that civilians can return safely to their homes on both sides of the border, according to the department.

Israel’s ground invasion into Lebanon follows its deadly detonation of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers, two weeks of air strikes, and its killing on Sept 27 of Nasrallah.

The intensive air strikes have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government. REUTERS, AFP