Calls for foreign nationals to urgently leave Lebanon grew on Sunday as France warned of a “highly volatile” situation as Iran and its allies prepare to respond to high-profile killings blamed on Israel.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has been engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war began in October, announced that its fighters fired a volley of rockets into Israel’s north overnight.
The Israeli military said 30 missiles were fired from Lebanon, most of which were destroyed.
Israel has been put on high alert over fears of a major military crackdown by Tehran-allied armed groups including Hezbollah and Hamas, and medics and police said two people were killed in a knife attack in a Tel Aviv suburb on Sunday.
The attacker, a Palestinian citizen from the occupied West Bank, was “neutralized” by police and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile Israeli forces continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, with witnesses and officials in the besieged Hamas-ruled territory saying there appeared to be no end in sight to the nearly 10-month war that began after the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
France, Canada and Jordan are among the latest governments to call on their citizens to leave Lebanon.
The Foreign Ministry in Paris said French citizens were “urgently” asked not to travel to Lebanon “due to the extremely volatile security scenario,” and those already in the country were asked to “arrange to leave as soon as possible….”
The United States and Britain have also issued similar warnings.
France also on Sunday urged its citizens in Iran to “temporarily leave” and warned that Iranian airspace and airports could be closed.
Several Western airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon and other airports in the region.
On Sunday, Qatar Airways said its Doha-Beirut route would “operate only during the day” until at least Monday.
Hours after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, and the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut, Iran and the so-called “axis of resistance” of Tehran-backed armed groups have vowed retribution.
Israel has been accused by Hamas, Iran and other countries of carrying out the attack that killed Haniyeh, and has not commented directly on it.
Tents for displaced people
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the unprecedented October 7 attack that left 1,197 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
The operation also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom the military says are dead.
At least 39,583 people have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s campaign against Hamas, according to the Israeli Health Ministry, although the ministry did not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief, was the group’s chief negotiator in efforts to end the war.
His killing has raised questions about the continued viability of efforts by Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators to broker a ceasefire and exchange hostages and prisoners.
Fighting continued on the ground in Gaza on Sunday, with reports of attacks, shelling and gunfire in and around Gaza city and in the south of the region.
The Israeli military said its air forces had “struck nearly 50 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip” in the past 24 hours.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said eight bodies were recovered from a residential building in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza following an Israeli air strike.
Doctors at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza said at least five people were killed and 16 wounded in an Israeli drone strike on tents housing displaced Palestinians at the medical compound, while a separate attack on a house in the same area killed three people.
At least 17 people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack on a school that had become a shelter for displaced people, the civil protection agency said. Israel said the facility was used by militants.
War ‘without any obstacles’
Analysts told AFP that a joint but measured response was likely from Iran and its allies, while Tehran said it expected Hezbollah to strike deep inside Israel and not limit itself to military targets.
The United States, Israel’s ally, said it would send warships and fighter jets to the region.
US President Joe Biden, asked by reporters if he thought Iran would back down, said: “I hope so. I don’t know.”
Amman said Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi was due to make a rare visit to Tehran to discuss “the situation in the region”.
Rafi Gilo, head of the Home Front Command, said the Israeli military was “determined to continue fighting until there is a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.”
“We are…prepared for any situation and any response,” Gilo said, according to an army statement.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said in a report released on Saturday that Haniyeh’s killing had “plunged the Middle East into its biggest crisis in years.”
It said that because of the miscalculations, “the likelihood that war could break out without any disruption … is greater now than it was in April.”
On April 13, Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel – most of which were destroyed – following a deadly attack on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.
The ICG said ensuring a “long-awaited ceasefire” in Gaza was the “best way to reduce tensions in the region”.
Hamas officials as well as some analysts and protesters in Israel have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war to protect his ruling hard-right coalition.
On Sunday, Netanyahu told his Cabinet that he was making “every effort” to bring back the hostages and was prepared to “go to great lengths” to do so.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
