Fighting intensified on two fronts on Sunday as Israel targeted a Hezbollah “command center” in the Lebanese capital, while rescuers in Gaza reported 73 people killed in a single airstrike. The attacks on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed group of attempting to assassinate him by targeting his residence.
It came as Israelis celebrated the major week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, where a Hamas attack on October 7 last year sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said the Israeli attack on Beirut hit a mosque in Haret Hreik and a residential building near a hospital.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah’s “command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” and an underground weapons facility in Beirut, and that it also killed three Hezbollah militants in other attacks.
It later said that about 70 projectiles fired from Lebanon hit Israel within minutes, and that it intercepted some of them.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least 73 Palestinians were killed in Beit Lahiya, north of the territory, in an Israeli airstrike on a residential area.
Civil Protection Agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said, “Our civil protection forces recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of injured as a result of the Israeli Air Force targeting a residential area in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.”
The Israeli military said it struck a “Hamas terrorist base”. It said toll figures provided by Gaza authorities “do not align” with the information it has.
The army launched offensive operations in both Gaza and Lebanon, where it said its forces “attacked approximately 175 terrorist targets”.
The army said it continued operations in northern, central and southern parts of Gaza.
“Troops killed dozens of militants during close encounters in ground and air strikes across Gaza,” it said.
‘serious mistake’
In southern Lebanon, the NNA later said Israeli attacks had targeted dozens of locations, including the town of Nabatiyeh, for the third time this week.
The army said it had “attacked and eliminated more than 65 Hezbollah militants… and struck dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said a drone was launched toward his residence in the central city of Caesarea, but that he and his wife were far away and there were no casualties.
“The attempt today by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife was a serious mistake,” the prime minister said.
“Anyone who tries to harm Israeli civilians will pay a heavy price,” he said in comments directed at Tehran and “its proxies,” including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a group with which Israel entered into a ceasefire in late September. Is fighting with.
Since then, the war has killed at least 1,454 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The Lebanese group armed and funded by Iran did not acknowledge the attack, but late Saturday Iran’s mission to the United Nations said “the action was carried out by Hezbollah”.
Hezbollah said on Saturday it launched rocket attacks north of Israel, where rescuers said one person died after being hit by shrapnel.
Hamas, Hezbollah and allied Iran-backed groups in the region have vowed to continue fighting after Israeli troops killed Palestinian movement leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on Wednesday, a war triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 It’s been more than a year.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “Hamas in Palestine is a reality that no one can ignore, no one can destroy.”
Israel has vowed to respond to Iran’s October 1 attack, in which Tehran said it fired 200 missiles at its arch enemy in response to the killing of Iranian general and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
‘Every day a massacre’
The war was sparked by Hamas’ unprecedented offensive last year, which has resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and return hostages has killed 42,519 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers credible.
Israel, vowing to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground offensive on October 6, tightening its siege on the war-torn territory and forcing thousands of people to flee.
Civil defense spokesman Bassal said, “Since the start of the Israeli operation, we have recovered more than 400 martyrs from various targeted areas of the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabaliya and its refugee camp.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into civil defense agency reports from Gaza, including that an overnight airstrike on Jabaliya killed 33 people.
“More than a year has passed, and every day our blood is shed,” displaced Gazan Nasser Shakura said outside a hospital in Deir al-Balah, where victims of Israeli airstrikes were taken.
“Every day, every hour, there is genocide,” he said. “This has become our life.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
