Israel has launched its heaviest air attack on Beirut in almost a year of conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, levelling a number of buildings in a southern suburb in an apparent attempt to kill Hezbollah’s leader and key Iran ally, Hassan Nasrallah.
Six loud explosions were heard across the Lebanese capital late on Friday afternoon, and vast plumes of smoke were visible from as far as Batroun, a city an hour’s drive away.
Several apartment blocks in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Haret Hreik were reduced to rubble, and footage from the scene showed huge slabs of concrete topped by piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters were visible, a car had fallen into one.
The Lebanese health ministry said two people had died and 76 were injured, describing this as a preliminary figure, while some early estimates put the number of dead at 300. More casualties are expected as rescue workers clear rubble.
Video of the strikes suggested they were carried out with ground-penetrating munitions known as bunker busters. In some footage, a vertical jet of flame was visible as a bomb appeared to explode beneath the ground.
Israeli army spokesman R Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters the strikes hit the main Hezbollah headquarters, which he said was located underground beneath residential buildings.
Israeli media reported that Nasrallah was the principle target and that the military was checking whether he had been hit. Other media outlets quoted Hezbollah sources saying he was “alive and well”. Late on Friday the militant group’s media office said that there was “no truth to any statement” about the Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, without specifying what statements it was referring to.
The strikes came shortly after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the UN general assembly in a bellicose speech marked by the walkout of dozens of diplomats that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue despite international efforts to secure a three-week ceasefire.
Targeting Nasrallah – even if he was not harmed – would mark a staggering escalation on the Israeli side. He represents Iran’s most important regional asset and has long been seen as linchpin in the so-called axis of resistance. The presence of Hezbollah’s large rocket arsenal on Israel’s northern border has long acted as a deterrent to an Israeli attack on Iran and its nuclear programme.
Iran’s embassy in Beirut said on X that the airstrike represented “a dangerous game-changing escalation that changes the rules of the game” and warned that its perpetrator would be “punished appropriately”.
The British embassy meanwhile reiterated its warning to UK citizens, posting: “British nationals in Lebanon should leave now. You should take the next available flight.”
As night fell in Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s office said he had personally approved the strike, issuing a photograph of Netanyahu with his military secretary and chief of staff on the phone in his New York hotel.
His office also announced that he had cut short his US visit and would return immediately to Israel.
Underlining the significance of the strike, Israeli media reported that the operation was watched as it unfolded by the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in the command centre of the Israeli air forcein Tel Aviv, along with the Israeli chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, and other top commanders.
Although some Israeli media suggested that the US had been informed minutes before the attack, that was emphatically denied by US president Joe Biden who told reporters the US “no knowledge of or participation” in the strike.
The explosions were so powerful that they rattled windows and shook houses in settlements 18 miles north of Beirut.
Nearby witnesses quoted by the Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour described seeing substantial fissures open in the ground. Ambulances were seen heading to the scene of the explosions, sirens wailing.
The IDF’s spokesperson, R Adm Daniel Hagari, said in a video statement that Hezbollah’s headquarters was “intentionally built under residential buildings” in Beirut’s southern Dahieh area “as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields”.
He said: “Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organisation that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely.”
Not long before the attack, thousands of people had gathered in Dahieh for the funeral of three Hezbollah members, including a senior commander, killed in earlier strikes.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, who is also in New York, was following developments as information arrived, according to a statement from his office.
The statement said Mikati was in touch with the commander of the Lebanese armed forces, Joseph Aoun, and had ordered “the full mobilisation” of emergency resources after reports of a large number of victims.
“This new aggression demonstrates that the Israeli enemy is mocking all the international appeals in favour of a ceasefire from the international community,” Mikati said.
Late on Friday night, Hezbollah launched fresh rocket salvos against the north Israeli cities of Safed, Karmiel and Sa’ar, which it said were carried out “in response to Israeli attacks on cities, villages and civilians.”
Earlier in the day, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon killed about 25 people, taking the death toll this week to more than 720, health authorities said.
The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of strikes over the course of two hours around the south on Friday, including in the cities of Sidon and Nabatieh. It said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure. It said Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.
A year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated sharply this week, raising fears of an even more destructive conflict. More than 90,000 people have been reported as newly displaced in Lebanon this week, according to the UN, adding to more than 111,000 already uprooted by the conflict.
Hezbollah began firing at Israel on 8 October last year as the Gaza war began, declaring solidarity with the Palestinians. Hezbollah has said it will cease fire only when Israel’s Gaza offensive ends.
