The Israeli army said Friday it had struck Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut, where a series of massive explosions razed several buildings and sent clouds of orange and black smoke into the sky in the largest explosions to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year. At least two people were killed and dozens injured, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Three major Israeli television channels said Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The unprovided information could not immediately be confirmed by The Associated Press and the military declined to comment. But given the scale and timing of the explosions, there are strong indications that a senior executive may have been inside the affected buildings.
Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
In another possible sign of the significance of the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly cut short his visit to the United States and returned home instead of waiting until after the Sabbath Saturday evening, his office said. Israeli politicians do not normally travel on the Sabbath except for matters of great importance.
Hours earlier, Netanyahu addressed the U.N., vowing that Israel’s support campaign against Hezbollah would continue – further dimming hopes for an internationally supported ceasefire. News of the explosions broke as Netanyahu was briefing journalists traveling with him. A military aide whispered in his ear and Netanyahu quickly ended the briefing.
To a degree unprecedented in past conflicts, Israel last week sought to eliminate senior Hezbollah leaders. Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the strikes targeted Hezbollah’s main headquarters, located beneath residential buildings. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s office said he was meeting with the head of the Israeli Air Force and other senior commanders at military headquarters following updates.
The series of gigantic explosions around nightfall reduced six buildings to rubble in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. The shock wave shook windows and shook houses about 30 kilometers north of Beirut. Television images showed several craters – including one with an overturned car – amid collapsed buildings in the densely populated, predominantly Shiite neighborhood.
Image from social media /via REUTERS
First responders were still searching under the rubble hours later while others struggled to put out the fires. The full death toll was not immediately known, the Health Ministry said, adding that 15 of the 76 injured had been hospitalized. Many people living nearby were seen gathering their belongings and fleeing along a main road out of the district.
Nasrallah has been in hiding for years and very rarely appears in public. He regularly gives speeches – but always by video from unknown locations. The site hit Friday evening was not publicly known as Hezbollah’s main headquarters, although it is located in the group’s “security quarters,” a heavily guarded part of Haret Hreik where the group has offices and manages several nearby hospitals.
Aziz Taher / REUTERS
The Pentagon said the United States had no advance warning of the strikes.
Israel spectacularly intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon this week, saying it was determined to put an end to more than 11 months of Hezbollah fire on its territory. The scope of the Israeli operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion aimed at driving the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops to the border in preparation.
Israeli strikes this week have killed more than 720 people in Lebanon, including dozens of women and children, according to Health Ministry statistics.
A dawn strike Friday in the predominantly Sunni border town of Chebaa hit a house, killing nine members of the same family, the official news agency said. A resident identified the dead as Hussein Zahra, his wife Ratiba, their five children and two of their grandchildren.
At the UN, Netanyahu pledged to “continue to degrade Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals. His comments dampened hopes for a US-backed call for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah to allow time for a diplomatic solution. Hezbollah did not respond to the proposal.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful armed force, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, claiming it was a show of support for the Palestinians. Since then, the Israeli army and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.
An Israeli security official said he expects a possible war against Hezbollah will not last as long as the current war in Gaza because the Israeli military’s objectives are much narrower.
In GazaIsrael aims to dismantle Hamas’ military and political rule, but the goal in Lebanon is to drive Hezbollah away from the border with Israel – “not a high bar like Gaza” in terms of operational objectives, the official said, who spoke at the press conference. condition of anonymity due to military briefing guidelines.
The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of strikes in the south on Friday, targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure. Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets towards the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil protection officers removed the bodies of two women – Hiba Ataya, 35, and her mother Sabah Olyan – from the rubble of a building destroyed by a strike.
“It’s Sabah, these are her clothes, my love,” a man shouted as her body emerged.
Israel says its accelerated strikes this week have already inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s military capabilities and its fighters. But the group had a large arsenal of rockets and missiles and its remaining capabilities remain unknown.
Hezbollah officials and their supporters remain defiant. Shortly before Friday night’s explosions, thousands of people were massed in another part of Beirut’s suburbs for the funerals of three Hezbollah members killed in previous strikes, including the head of the group’s drone unit , Mohammed Surour.
Men and women in the giant crowd pumped their fists in the air and chanted: “We will never accept humiliation” as they marched behind the three coffins, wrapped in the group’s yellow flag.
Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s top official in Beirut, said in a speech that no matter how many commanders Israel kills, the group has an infinite number of experienced fighters deployed on all front lines. Fadlallah vowed that Hezbollah would continue fighting until Israel ended its offensive in Gaza.
“We will not abandon support for Palestine, Jerusalem and oppressed Gaza,” Fadlallah said. “There is no room for neutrality in this battle.”
