Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon after Iran-allied group launches missiles over the border | Lebanon
Israel launched heavy air strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday after the Iran-backed group launched missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Beirut residents woke up at 3 a.m. Monday morning to the sound of nearly a dozen explosions as Israel struck three different locations in the capital’s southern suburbs.
Explosions shook windows around the capital and were heard for miles. People in southern Lebanon heard warplanes and bombs being dropped as air strikes were carried out over large areas of the country’s south, destroying buildings in villages near Tire in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it launched missile and drone bombardment of the Mishmar al-Karmel missile defense facility near Haifa around midnight “in retaliation” for Khamenei’s killing and “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”
Israel struck back just a few hours later, hitting what it identified as Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa valley and the Beirut suburb of Dahieh. The Israeli military claimed that several senior Hezbollah officers were killed in the attacks on Dahieh.
“Hezbollah launched a campaign against Israel overnight and is fully responsible for any escalation of tensions. Any enemy that threatens our security will pay a heavy price,” Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
An Israeli military spokesman issued an evacuation order for 55 different villages and towns in Lebanon, asking people to move at least 1,000 meters away from “Hezbollah agents and facilities” due to their proximity. Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military announced the deployment of 100,000 reservists, mostly along the Lebanese border.
Flocks of people began fleeing Dahieh by car and on foot, and in the southern city of Tire, queues of cars began to form outside gas stations as residents began heading north. Highways from Dahieh to the capital were clogged with scooters and cars plowing over rubble and rubble from previous strikes. In the south, people moved north on both sides of the highway to avoid traffic.
In the videos, the tops of buildings in Dahieh were engulfed in flames, while burnt car parts lay at the feet of the crumpled buildings. As they struggled to escape, witnesses reported seeing rocket fire that resembled a Hezbollah artillery barrage flying from southern Lebanon towards Israel.
The memory of the 13-month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended in 2024, has a deep place in the memories of the Lebanese. Fear quickly spread that Dahieh, the Bekaa valley and much of the south might become as uninhabitable as they were then. Israel bombed these areas every day during the war, killing approximately 4,000 people and displacing one million.
In the early hours of Monday morning, as the number of people displaced from affected areas of Lebanon grew, families and friends quickly made plans for what to do and tried to figure out exactly what had happened.
The Lebanese government immediately condemned Hezbollah’s decision to bomb Israel without consulting the state. Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said he would “not allow the country to be dragged into new adventures” without naming the militant group.
“The rocket fire from South Lebanon is an irresponsible and questionable act that endangers the security and safety of Lebanon and provides Israel with excuses to continue its aggression,” Salam said in a post on channel X.
For weeks, Lebanese officials tried to prevent Hezbollah from joining a possible war in Iran, while Israel conveyed messages to its Lebanese counterparts that any attack would lead to a wide-ranging reaction against the entire country.
