An Israeli air strike on an apartment in central Beirut killed seven Hezbollah civilians. Israel has been bombing areas of the country where the armed group has a strong presence since late September, but it rarely bombs the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before the attack late Wednesday, which hit an apartment in central Beirut not far from the United Nations headquarters, the Prime Minister’s Office and Parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross said that an Israeli raid wounded four of its medics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded from the south. She said that the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese forces, was targeted on Thursday despite its movements being coordinated with UN peacekeeping forces.
In a separate development, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon located north of the buffer zone declared by the United Nations and established after the 2006 war. The warnings issued on Thursday indicate the possibility of expanding the scope of the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, which has until now remained confined to… Areas near the border.
At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it says is a limited ground incursion earlier this week. At the same time, the region was bracing for Israeli retaliation following the Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the strike in Beirut, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs, without providing evidence. Human rights groups have accused Israel in the past of using incendiary white phosphorus shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Hezbollah has an armed wing with tens of thousands of fighters, but it also has a political movement and a network of charities staffed by civilians.
In a separate development, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they launched two drones at Tel Aviv overnight. The army said it identified two drones off the coast of the bustling capital region, shooting down one while the other fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
The escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second front in the conflict between Israel and Iranian-backed militants that began nearly a year ago with a surprise October 7 attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip on Israel.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an air strike in the Gaza Strip about three months ago. It said that a raid on an underground complex in northern Gaza resulted in the killing of Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas leaders.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Mushtaha was a close aide to Yahya Sinwar, the supreme leader of Hamas who helped orchestrate the October 7 attack. Sinwar is believed to be alive and hiding inside Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israeli raids in Lebanon led to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of its senior commanders. Hundreds of other air strikes across large parts of Lebanon since mid-September have killed at least 1,276 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had struck about 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation sites. It said the strikes killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters. There has been no independent confirmation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, with Israel warning people from about 50 villages and towns in the south, telling them to move to areas about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther north. A buffer zone declared by the United Nations.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah nearly a year after rocket attacks that began on October 8 and led to the displacement of about 60,000 Israelis from communities in the north. Israel launched retaliatory strikes last year, which led to the displacement of tens of thousands on the Lebanese side.
The vast majority of recent strikes occurred in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the southern suburbs of Beirut. But Israel has also carried out raids on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and a raid in central Beirut earlier this week resulted in the killing of three Palestinian militants.
Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis form part of the Iranian-led axis of resistance, which also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq. They have launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians, sparking retaliation in a cycle that has repeatedly threatened to ignite a broader conflict.
The region again appears to be on the brink of such a conflict after Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, which it said was retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah, the IRGC general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas. He was killed in an explosion in Tehran last July that was widely blamed on Israel.
Israel and the United States said there would be serious consequences for the missile attack, which slightly injured two people and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. The United States quickly sent military assets to the region to support Israel.
Jeffrey reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Zeina Karam in London contributed to this report.
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