Israel pounds Lebanon, pressuring Hezbollah after killing its leader

By Emily Rose and Maya Gebeily

Israel struck multiple targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing Iran-backed Hezbollah with more attacks after it struck a huge blow by killing the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israeli military said the air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward Israeli territory, structures in which weapons were stored and additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”.

The navy had intercepted a projectile approaching Israel from the area of the Red Sea and another eight projectiles coming from Lebanon had fallen in open areas, it said in a statement.

Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli air attack on Friday on the group’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs. It was a major blow to Hezbollah and to Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.

Israel announced his killing on Saturday and Hezbollah later confirmed his death.

In its announcement, Hezbollah said it would keep fighting Israel and has continued to fire rockets at it, including a salvo on Sunday morning.

Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.

The escalation has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the United States, Israel’s closest ally.

Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting in parallel with Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas since the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s attack on Israel last Oct. 7.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 33 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon during Saturday, bringing the total toll since hostilities broke out on Oct. 8 last year to more than 1,670, including 104 children.

In Beirut, displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront where private security usually shoos away any loiterers.

On Sunday morning, families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and poured tea for themselves.

“You won’t be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however much you bomb, however much you displace people – we will stay here. We won’t leave. This is our country and we’re staying,” said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme said in a statement on Sunday it had launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon.

‘BALANCE OF POWER’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday Nasrallah’s killing was a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region for years to come”.

“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.

Israel said it killed senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki and other commanders along with Nasrallah.

U.S. President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the U.S. fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.

But when asked if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, Biden told reporters on Saturday: “It’s time for a ceasefire.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, sources told Reuters. Khamenei said Nasrallah’s death would be avenged and his path in fighting Israel would be pursued by other militants.

Tehran called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, warning against any attacks on its diplomatic facilities and representatives.

A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in Friday’s attacks, Iranian media reported.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s war was not with the Lebanese people. He held talks late on Saturday about possibly expanding Israel’s military offensive on its northern front, his office said.

Hezbollah has said it would cease fire only when Israel’s Gaza offensive ends. Hamas and other allies of Hezbollah issued statements mourning his death.

CHRISTIAN CONDOLENCES

Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s killing had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”. Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing it of dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts.

“We offer our personal condolences to the family and community of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said in a sermon.

Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah’s Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.