Written by Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and James Mackenzie
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A wave of airstrikes hit areas south of Beirut early on Saturday as Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah, after a major strike on the command center of the Iran-backed group reportedly targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Leaving their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese gathered in the squares, parks and streets of downtown Beirut and the coastal areas.
“They want to destroy Dahiye, they want to destroy all of us,” said Sari, a 30-year-old man who only gave his name, talking about the place he fled to after being ordered to leave Israel. Nearby, recent evacuees in Beirut’s Martyrs Square roll on mats on the floor trying to sleep.
The five-hour long strikes that began early Saturday followed Friday’s attack, Israel’s most violent in Beirut during the year-long war with Hezbollah. It marked a sharp escalation in the conflict involving daily missile and rocket fire between the two sides.
The latest escalation has fueled fears that the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, and the United States into conflict.
There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate after Friday’s heavy strikes, but a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was unavailable. The Lebanese armed group has not made a statement.
Israel has not said whether it has tried to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said it was aimed at senior Hezbollah commanders.
“I think it’s too early to say… Sometimes they hide the truth when we succeed,” an Israeli official told reporters when asked if Friday’s strike killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported that he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was monitoring his situation.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile division, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
THE DEATH RATE IS RISING
Hours before the latest conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his country had the right to continue the campaign.
“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 homes safely,” he said.
Many delegates left when Netanyahu approached the lecture hall. He later cut short his trip to New York to return to Israel.
Lebanon’s health authorities confirmed that six people were killed and 91 wounded in the first attack on Friday – the fourth in southern Beirut controlled by Hezbollah in a week and the worst since the 2006 war.
The value of the currency seems likely to rise significantly. There was no word on the casualties from the recent strikes. More than 700 people died in strikes last week, authorities said.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported that seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the target was an area where senior Hezbollah officials are often based.
Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of southern Beirut to evacuate as they targeted rocket launchers and weapons caches they said were under houses.
Hezbollah denied that weapons or weapons depots were found in buildings hit in the Beirut area, the Lebanese armed group’s office said in a statement.
Alaa al-Din Saeed, an Israeli national identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.
“We found out on television. There was a sensation in the neighborhood,” he said. The family confiscated clothes, identity documents and some money but they got stuck in the traffic while others tried to escape.
“We’re going to the mountains. We’ll see how we sleep – and tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”
Nearly 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, bringing the total number displaced from the country to more than 200,000.
The Israeli government has said that returning some 70,000 Israeli refugees to their homes is an objective of the war.
AFRAID THE FIGHT WILL LEAVE
Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against Israeli targets, including Tel Aviv. The group says it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel’s air defense systems have ensured that damage has been minimal so far.
Iran, which said Friday’s attack crossed “red lines”, accused Israel of using US-made bombs.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was not informed of the strike in advance. President Joe Biden has been kept informed of developments.
At the UN, where the annual General Assembly convened this week, the intensification drew expressions of concern including France, where the US proposed a 21-day moratorium.
“This must end immediately,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.
At a press conference in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We believe the way forward is dialogue, not conflict… We will continue to work deliberately with all parties to urge them to choose that path.”
Hezbollah launched the latest war in the decades-long conflict with rocket fire against Israel immediately after Israel’s October 7 attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza last year.
