Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiye, a stronghold of Hezbollah, came under heavy attack on Thursday after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in parts of the district.
The air raids reportedly targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumoured successor to the group’s former chief Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground bunker. Safieddine’s fate was not clear, reports claimed.
Dahiye has witnessed a barrage of Israeli missiles for the past few weeks, including bombs that killed Nasrallah a week ago.
Hezbollah also said it carried out new strikes, targeting what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel and “Nesher base” in Haifa.
The latest clashes between Israel and Hezbollah come two days after Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel – its biggest-ever assault on its regional foe – as a response to Israeli killings of Nasrallah and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told a news channel that the country’s war cabinet is weighing its options and “will not sit idly by” after Iran’s attack. “What happened was an unprecedented response and as I said in the Security Council that it will be a very strong, painful response. It will be soon,” Danny Danon told CNN.
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that “we can avoid” all-out war in the Middle East. “I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it,” he told reporters at the White House when asked how confident he was that full-blown war in the region could be averted. “But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet,” he added.
Biden was also asked whether he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities. “We’re discussing that,” he told reporters, a comment that led to a surge in global oil prices.
Nearly 2,000 people have so far been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks.
The clashes began when Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel a year ago in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza.
Israeli Strikes Target Hezbollah Intel HQ, Nasrallah’s Likely Successor
