BEIRUT: Israel carried out massive airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern outskirts of Beirut on Monday after Iranian-backed groups fired missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
More than a dozen explosions shook Beirut, witnesses said, in the most intensive airstrikes since the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah on the southern suburbs.
Lebanese security sources said the airstrikes hit several areas in the southern suburbs known as Dahieh.
The Israeli military said it had launched attacks on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon and blamed Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah launched operations against Israel overnight and takes full responsibility for any escalation,” Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
It was the first projectile fired by Hezbollah since the US and Israel began attacking Iran.
Lebanese security sources said Israel also carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
The Shiite Islamic group, one of the Iranian government’s longtime main allies in the Middle East, said it launched the attack against Israel in response to Israel’s killing of Ayatollah Khamenei and continued Israeli violations of Lebanon.
“The resistance leadership has always emphasized that Israel’s continued attacks and assassinations of leaders, youth and people give us the right to defend ourselves and respond at the appropriate time and place,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is acting against Hezbollah’s decision to participate in the operation and will not allow the organization to pose a threat to the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024, ending more than a year of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The fighting culminated in an Israeli offensive that significantly weakened the Iranian-backed group. The two sides have since exchanged accusations over the violations.
The Lebanese president’s office said on Saturday that it had been told by the US ambassador that Israel would not escalate against Lebanon unless there is hostility from the Lebanese side. (Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut and Yomna Ehab and Nayera Abdallah in Cairo; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Michael Perry)
