Israel warns Lebanese as intense strikes target Hezbollah

BEIRUT

Israel pounded Hezbollah targets in south and east Lebanon Monday and said more strikes were coming, warning Lebanese to stay out of harm's way despite international calls for restraint.

After nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, the strikes since the weekend are the most intense since the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last Oct. 7.

Israel said more than 300 Hezbollah sites had been targeted on Monday in dozens of strikes.

Israel military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari made a first-of-its-kind appeal to people in Lebanon, telling them to avoid potential targets linked to Hezbollah as strikes would "go on for the near future."

Hagari said Israel's military "will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon."

He urged civilians "to immediately move out of harm's way for their own safety."

Hezbollah, a powerful political and military force in Lebanon, says it is acting in "support" of Hamas.

Ahead of the annual General Assembly, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned of Lebanon becoming "another Gaza" and said it was "clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire" there.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported "more than 80 air strikes in half an hour," targeting south Lebanon, as well as "intense raids" in the Bekaa Valley to the east, where it said a shepherd was killed.

Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed but gave no details.

The health ministry reported 34 wounded and told hospitals in the south and east to stop all non-urgent surgery "to make space to treat the wounded."

The education minister said schools in the east and south as well as in Beirut's southern suburbs would close for two days.

Explosions around Baalbek in the east triggered flashes of fire and sent smoke billowing into the sky.

'Quickly evacuate' 

Housewife Wafaa Ismail, 60, from the south Lebanon village of Zawtar, said "we sleep and wake up to bombardment... That's what our life has become."

Residents and local media said strikes also hit the outskirts of the coastal city Tyre.

NNA said Lebanese had received phone messages from Israel telling them "to quickly evacuate."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel has dealt "a series of blows on Hezbollah that it could have never imagined."

Hezbollah's deputy chief, Naim Qassem, said the group was in a "new phase, namely an open reckoning" with Israel, and ready for "all military possibilities."

Both spoke after rocket attacks on northern Israel forced Israelis to seek shelter and caused damage in the area of Haifa, a major city on Israel's north coast.

"No country can tolerate attacks on its citizens," Netanyahu said, as Israel turns its focus on Hezbollah, nearly a year into its Gaza war sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel.

Since the near-daily border exchanges began in October, hundreds of people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly fighters, and dozens in Israel and the annexed Golan Heights.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled their homes, and Israeli leaders say they are seeking to ensure their citizens can return safely.

An Israeli military official, who cannot be further identified under military rules, on Monday outlined the goals of the military operation which he said is currently only an "aerial campaign."

The first goal is to "degrade threats" from Hezbollah. The second is to push them back from the border, and the final goal is to destroy infrastructure built near the border by Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, the official said.

 Ceasefire call 

World powers have implored both sides to pull back from the brink of all-out war.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the U.N. and "influential countries" to deter what he called Israel's "destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns."

United States President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's leading weapons supplier, said his administration was "going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out."

Russia on Monday expressed "extreme concern" at the threat of escalation.

The European Union and Britain had stressed the need for a ceasefire, and China on Monday urged its nationals to leave Israel.

Despite Israel's sophisticated air defenses, Hezbollah rocket fire reached Kiryat Bialik near Haifa, leaving a building in flames, another pockmarked with shrapnel and vehicles incinerated on the weekend.

 Elite leadership decimated 

Analysts say Hezbollah has been dealt a serious blow this past week.

Deadly attacks targeted its communications and decimated the leadership of its elite unit, although its ability to fight has not been crushed, the analysts said.

An Israeli air strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold on Friday killed the Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil.

Lebanon's health ministry said the strike killed 45 people including many civilians as well as other Hezbollah commanders.

The Beirut strike came after coordinated communications device blasts on Tuesday and Wednesday killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000, with Hezbollah blaming Israel.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli military production facilities and an air base in the Haifa area with rockets as "an initial response".

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told AFP the Israel-Hezbollah flare-up "negatively affects" Gaza ceasefire efforts as there is "lack of political will on the Israeli side"

Netanyahu's critics inside Israel have accused him of dragging out the war.

Egypt has tried for months with Qatar and the United States to broker a ceasefire.

Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages also 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 41,431 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The U.N. has acknowledged the figures as reliable.