Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire, world leaders alarmed

Rescuers rush to the scene of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh on September 24, 2024.| Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP

BEIRUT, Lebanon—Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire on Tuesday, defying international calls for de-escalation during a second day of clashes that Lebanon said claimed hundreds of lives.

Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday, marking the deadliest day of violence in the country since its 1975-90 civil war.

Hezbollah claimed 18 attacks on Israel on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said the Iran-backed group fired about 300 rockets across the border.

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Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire since Palestinian militants Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

The Hamas attack sparked a war in Gaza that has drawn in Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militants from across the Middle East, including Yemen and Iraq.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad, who gave Monday’s toll of 558 dead, said the “vast majority, if not all, of those killed in yesterday’s attacks were unarmed people in their homes”.

His office said another six people were killed Tuesday in a strike on south Beirut.

Israel said it “eliminated” Hezbollah’s rocket forces commander Ibrahim Kobeissi in the strike on the Lebanese capital. A source close to Hezbollah also said Kobeissi had been killed.

In the evening, the Israeli military said it was “currently conducting extensive strikes on Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon”.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency later reported extensive Israeli strikes, particularly in the south but also in the east.

At the UN General Assembly in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the situation in Lebanon was critical.

“We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink,” he said, while cautioning against “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza”.

Netanyahu defiant

US President Joe Biden warned against a full-blown war in Lebanon, in his speech during the New York gathering.

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said.

Despite pressure mounting on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the withering air campaign in Lebanon.

“We will continue to hit Hezbollah… the one who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his home will not have a home,” he said.

Hezbollah claimed 18 attacks on Israel Tuesday, including 90 rockets at a base near Safed in northern Israel and “explosive-laden drones” at the Atlit naval base south of Haifa.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “approximately 300 rockets were fired at Israel… injuring six civilians and soldiers, most of them lightly”.

He added that Israeli jets “precisely attacked a floor of the building” where Kobeissi was located in Beirut, adding that at least two commanders from his force were “eliminated”.

The United Nations said tens of thousands of Lebanese had fled their homes because of the Israeli bombardment.

The UN refugee agency later said it was “outraged” after one of its staff members and a contractor were killed.

‘Day of terror’

Thuraya Harb, a 41-year-old housewife at a makeshift centre for displaced families in Beirut, described Monday as a “day of terror”.

“I didn’t want to leave my home, but the children were scared,” the mother of four said, adding that her family fled “with nothing but the clothes on our backs”.

Not all the displaced stayed in Lebanon. A security official in neighbouring Syria told AFP about 500 people had crossed the border to flee the bombing.

Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, condemned the raids, with its president, Masoud Pezeshkian, saying its ally “cannot stand alone” against Israel.

“We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel,” he said.

Other leaders have expressed alarm over the rapid escalation, with the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warning “we are almost in a full-fledged war”.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington opposed an Israeli ground invasion targeting Hezbollah and had “concrete ideas” on how to de-escalate the crisis.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon meanwhile said Israel was “not eager to start any ground invasion” in Lebanon.

‘New phase’

Israeli armed forces chief Herzi Halevi said Monday’s strikes hit combat infrastructure Hezbollah had been building for two decades, while Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called Monday “a significant peak” in the operation.

War in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,467 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

In a statement addressed to the UN chief, Hamas urged “immediate action” to stop the war in Gaza.

Since the start of the Gaza war, clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes.

The violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalated dramatically last week, when coordinated communications device blasts that the militants blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.

Then on Friday, an Israeli strike on southern Beirut, a bastion of Hezbollah, killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil.