Middle East conflict explodes as Israel drops bombs on Lebanon while Hezbollah fires 150 rockets at Iron Dome
Israeli fighter jets have carried out airstrikes in Lebanon after the military said Hezbollah was preparing to fire rockets and missiles at Israel.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “In a self-defense action to eliminate these threats, the (Israeli army) is striking terrorist targets in Lebanon from which Hezbollah planned to carry out its attacks on Israeli civilians.
Hagari warned that Hezbollah would “soon fire rockets and possibly drones” at Israel.
Shortly after the warning, sirens began to sound in northern Israel, followed by more sirens in the north.
Lebanese media reported strikes in the south of the country without immediately giving more details. Social media images showed what appeared to be strikes in southern Lebanon.
Hagari warned that Hezbollah would “soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and” drones at Israel
In recent weeks, there have been great fears that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could escalate into a regional conflict
Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv began diverting incoming flights and delaying other flights on Sunday due to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.
Israeli media quoted the Israel Airports Authority for the news. Flight tracking data showed that at least two El Al flights veered far south and were diverted after the announcement.
In his statement, Hagari added: “We see that Hezbollah is preparing for a large-scale attack on Israel, endangering Lebanese civilians.
“We warn civilians who are in the areas where Hezbollah is active to immediately move out of the danger zone for their own safety,” Hagari said.
While the IDF X-page added: ‘Hezbollah has just fired over 150 projectiles from Lebanon into Israeli territory. We target terrorist infrastructure, they target civilians.’
In recent weeks, there have been growing fears that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could escalate into a regional conflict after an Israeli strike killed a top Hezbollah commander and a suspected Israeli assassination in Iran killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Haniyeh, who fled the horrors of the war in Gaza while living in Qatar, traveled to Iran earlier this month to attend the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Lebanese media reported strikes in the south of the country, but did not immediately provide more details.
Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on August 23, 2024
Hours of Death: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Ismail Haniyeh (L) before Israel’s deadly attack on the Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024
But Israel seemed to seize its chance to attack Haniyeh. In the early morning, his home in Tehran was attacked and the Hamas leader and a guard were killed.
The killing, confirmed by both Hamas and Iranian authorities, is the highest-profile assassination since October 7.
While Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr was wiped out by an Israeli airstrike after being lured to the top of a building in Beirut.
Shukr, who was responsible for the 1983 Beirut massacre that killed 241 American and 58 French soldiers, was killed on July 30, along with his wife, two other women and two children. The attack, which was blamed on the Israeli army, also wounded 80 people.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Shukr received a call from someone telling him to go from the second floor of the building he was in to his apartment on the seventh floor.
This photo taken on August 23, 2024, shows smoke from an Israeli shelling in Khiam, Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters gather ahead of the funeral procession for late senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike earlier this month, in Beirut, Lebanon
A phone call lured Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr (pictured) to the top of the building in Beirut where he was minutes before he was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month
A Hezbollah official told the newspaper that he was easier to reach on the higher floor.
The official added that the call likely came from someone who had hacked into the terror group’s communications network, adding that Israeli intelligence had likely evaded its countermeasures with better technology and hacking capabilities.
Shukr, long known as the “Ghost” because he was rarely seen in public, is believed to have first gone into hiding after helping to plan the hijacking of a TWA flight from Athens to the US in 1985.
The White House said Friday it is still prepared for an Iranian attack on Israel, even as the Middle East continues to wait for a resolution to the Gaza conflict.
National security spokesman John Kirby called the ceasefire talks in Cairo “constructive,” even though the Palestinian terror group Hamas had not sent any representatives.
At the same time, Iran’s promised attack on Israel, in retaliation for Haniyeh’s assassination on Iranian soil, has still not been carried out.
Rockets fired from Lebanon are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system
But Kirby told reporters at a briefing: “It’s still a very dangerous situation. I can’t predict what Iran will or won’t do.
“We believe they are still willing to do something if they actually choose to do something, and that’s as far as I’m going.”
Kirby said authorities were “taking nothing for granted” and were also closely monitoring the activities of Hezbollah forces on the border with Israel.
‘I’m not going to comment on a specific intelligence assessment, but we certainly have to take Hezbollah’s rhetoric seriously.
“We know that there is a firefight there almost every day, and you simply cannot avoid it.”
The Pentagon has sent an additional aircraft carrier to the region to make Iran think twice about responding.
Kirby called on Hamas to join the ceasefire talks. Negotiators from Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar were present on Thursday, but not from Hamas.
The region was thrown into turmoil when Hamas fighters killed more than 1,200 people in Israel on October 7 last year.
