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Israel has struck the Lebanon-Syria border, cutting off the main road linking the two countries, after overnight bombardment of the West Bank and Lebanese capital Beirut.
The Friday morning strike near the Masnaa border crossing cut off the road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon's National News Agency said. The strike created a 4m wide crater. Israel on Thursday had accused Hezbollah of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
Around midnight on Thursday, intense explosions were reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs near Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport. Videos posted online showed explosions and fireballs erupting from the area. Reports said the target of Thursday's attack on Beirut was Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor as Hezbollah chief to Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli strike in the same area a week ago.
There was no initial confirmation of the fate of Mr Safieddine, who is also a cousin of Nasrallah and head of Hezbollah's Executive Council. The explosions were heard as far away as the northern Matn and Keserwan areas, about 20km from the capital.
A Hezbollah source said Israel had conducted 11 strikes on the group's southern Beirut stronghold late on Thursday. Sources had earlier said another Israeli strike had targeted a warehouse next to Beirut airport. The attacks came minutes after Hezbollah announced it launched Fadi-2 missiles targeting a base near the northern Israeli city of Haifa in response to the killing of Nasrallah. Fadi-2 missiles have a 170kg payload and are believed to have a range of 100km.
In all, Hezbollah launched approximately 230 projectiles from Lebanon into Israeli territory overnight.
Israel on Friday said it had killed the head of Hezbollah's communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi. It also claimed to have struck an underground tunnel crossing from the Lebanese border into Syria. "The 3.5km-long tunnel enables the transfer and storage of large quantities of weapons underground," Israel said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut on Friday, the most senior international official to visit Lebanon since Nasrallah's killing. He arrived at Beirut’s airport, where overnight an Israeli strike landed nearby.
Mr Araghchi held talks with Prime Minister Najib Mikati. After the meeting, he said Iran "will carry out a diplomatic campaign in support of Lebanon", adding Tehran had requested a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
He also met Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, later saying his presence in Beirut while it is being bombed by Israel showed Tehran stood with Hezbollah.
"We support efforts for a ceasefire on the condition that it would be acceptable to the Lebanese people, acceptable to the resistance [Hezbollah], and thirdly, it would be synchronised with a ceasefire in Gaza," he added.
A UN refugee agency official on Friday said that most of Lebanon's nearly 900 shelters were full and that people fleeing Israeli strikes were increasingly sleeping in the open.
"Most of the nearly 900 government established collective shelters in Lebanon have no more capacity," the UNHCR's Rula Amin told reporters in Geneva.
"With the onset of winter, UNHCR is concerned that conditions for those affected by the escalating conflict in other will only worsen," she added.
Occupied West Bank
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Tulkarm refugee camp on Thursday night, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli military said it had conducted a strike on Tulkarm and killed Zahi Yaser Abd Al Razeq Oufi, the head of the Hamas network there.
The Palestinian government “calls for urgent international action to stop the escalating massacres” against its people. The official spokesman for the Palestinian presidency also condemned the attack, Palestinian news agency Wafa said, adding that those attacks “will not bring security and stability to anyone, but will drag the region into more violence”.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.
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Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes targeted Palestine Tower in Gaza city on October 7, 2023. EPA -
Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. AFP -
This video grab from footage released by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group on May 22 shows what the group described as Israeli female soldiers being captured by Palestinian Hamas militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. AFP -
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. EPA -
A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza city. EPA -
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. Reuters -
Lightning strikes as smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. AFP -
An Israeli artillery unit fires at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, on October 11, 2023. EPA -
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish people carry their belongings before boarding a ship for US nationals and their immediate family members, as they leave Israel headed for Cyprus. Reuters -
Palestinian youths take cover behind a rubbish container as they clash with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El on October 20, 2023. AFP -
A man mourns as he attends a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Reuters -
A man holds a child, survivors of Israeli bombardment, as they are treated at a trauma ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. AFP -
People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. AFP -
Anti-war protesters raise their 'bloody' hands behind US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 31, 2023. Reuters -
Palestinians run for cover after a strike near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on November 1, 2023. AFP -
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. AFP -
An injured Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl child at the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023. AFP -
Hostages released by Hamas Gal, left, and Tal Almog-Goldstein, second left, stand in a bus transporting them to an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel after they were released by the Palestinian militant group from the Gaza Strip on November 26, 2023. AFP -
Palestinian boys stand in their makeshift tent at a camp set up on a schoolyard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip where most civilians have taken refuge, on December 13, 2023. AFP -
Palestinians fleeing the north through the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza city, walk past Israeli army tanks on November 24, 2023. AFP -
In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on December 15, 2023, soldiers visit a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used to attack Israel through the Erez border crossing on October 7. AFP -
Jewish protesters block the passage of aid trucks being sent to Gaza in Ashdod, Israel on February 1, 2024. Reuters -
A man pulls water containers as he walks past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis on May 5, 2024. AFP -
Relatives of Hanan Yablonka, one of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on May 26. AFP -
Humanitarian aid packages land after being dropped from a plane in Al Mawasi district of Khan Younis, on May 30, 2024. Reuters -
Palestinians attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Younis town, southern Gaza strip, on June 16. EPA -
Displaced Palestinians play football in Jabalia on July 23, 2024. AFP -
Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a school ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah on July 27, 2024. AFP -
Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11. Reuters -
Palestinians survey the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a displacement camp in Khan Younis on September 10, 2024. AFP -
A medical staff member carries supplies through a destroyed section of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on September 17. AFP -
People walk past makeshift graves in Gaza city on September 17. AFP
Israel, at war in Gaza since Hamas's October 7 attack, has widened the scope of the war to Lebanon secure its northern border and ensure the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah attacks over the past year. The fighting has driven nearly 1.2 million people from their homes in Lebanon, the country's crisis unit said Thursday.
Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said that 1,974 people have been killed – including 127 children and 261 women – and 9,384 injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 8.
The ministry said early on Friday that 37 people were killed and 151 wounded by Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours. The Israeli military said nine of its soldiers have been killed in combat in Lebanon.
The chief of the UN peacekeepers said the force is remaining in its positions on Lebanon’s southern border, despite Israel’s request for them to vacate some locations before it launched its recent ground operation. Jean-Pierre LaCroix said the commander and liaison officers from the force, known as Unifil, are in constant contact with their counterparts in the Israeli and Lebanese armies.
Unifil is also “the only channel of communications between the parties”, said Mr LaCroix. “The peacekeepers are also working with partners to do what they can to protect the population.”
