Israeli missiles slam into Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

Israel has rained hundreds of missiles down on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, its military has said, with dramatic videos from the ground showing huge explosions as bombs slam into buildings. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets across the border amid the escalating conflict, with the Israeli Prime Minister saying in a stark warning to the group: ‘Whoever hurts us, we will hurt him more’.

In an indication that the region is sliding ever-closer to an all-out war, Benjamin Netanyahu added that his country faces ‘complicated days’ and called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign in Lebanon unfolded. ‘I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north – that is exactly what we are doing,’ he said in a message issued following a situational assessment with top brass at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv. Israel’s devastating strikes have so far killed more than 180 people and injured hundreds more, Lebanese authorities have reported, with women, children and paramedics said to be among the dead.

Israel is aiming to ‘broadly neutralise’ the threat posed by Lebanon’s long-range missiles, according to veteran analyst Ehud Ya’ari. He told the country’s Channel 12 that the militant group – proscribed as terrorists by the UK, US and others – has built up an arsenal of long-range missiles over the past 18 years, adding that the air force ‘won’t be able to destroy every missile.’ The Israeli military said earlier that it had hit some 300 Hezbollah targets in a matter of hours, including a weapon which was identified as a Russian-made DR-3 missile, which they said was ready to be fired across the border.

Terrified residents in Beirut and elsewhere received calls and texts warning them to move away from Hezbollah targets, with Lebanon’s information minister condemning the alerts as a tactic of ‘psychological war implemented by the enemy’. Lebanon’s prime minister has accused Israel of waging ‘a war of extermination’, and urged the United Nations to intervene ‘to deter the (Israeli) aggression’, as the Middle East teeters on the edge of all-out conflict. Huge plumes of smoke have been seen at multiple sites deep into the country, with rockets fired at areas not previously hit by strikes and witnesses reporting intense bombing raids.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant confirmed that the IDF was ‘deepening’ attacks in Lebanon and suggested that the situation would intensify, warning in a video message: ‘These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure.’ Gallant further revealed on X this morning that he has provided his US counterpart with a ‘situation assessment of Hezbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.’ He added that the wider regional security situation and ‘threats posed by Iran and its proxies’ were also discussed.

The IDF issued a warning to residents of villages in southern Lebanon: ‘If you are in or near a building that Hezbollah uses to store weapons or weapons, you must evacuate this building and move away from it immediately. ‘Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives or the organization’s weapons puts themselves in danger.’ Lebanon’s PM Najib Mikati denounced Israel’s ‘destructive plan’ at a cabinet meeting this morning. ‘The continuing Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word and a destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns,’ he said.

He urged ‘the United Nations and the General Assembly and influential countries… to deter the (Israeli) aggression’. The country’s health ministry has reported that 100 people have so far been killed in the strikes, while 400 have been injured, including women, children and paramedics. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said that people in the capital were receiving Israeli phone warnings from ‘the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate where they are.’

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an earlier statement that ‘we advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety’. Hagari told a media briefing Israel’s military ‘will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon’. Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Hagari said ‘we will do whatever is needed’ in order to return evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes safely, a war priority for the Israeli government.

He said that Hezbollah over the years has stashed weapons, including cruise missiles, in houses and buildings throughout southern Lebanon, and called on residents to stay away from these sites. He presented in a media briefing an aerial video of what he described as Hezbollah operatives trying to launch cruise missiles from a civilian house in Lebanon, and the subsequent Israeli strike moments before it was launched. ‘Hezbollah is endangering you. Endangering you and your families,’ Hagari said. 

Hezbollah has traded near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered the Gaza war. Violence has spiked dramatically in recent days, and Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire over the weekend, raising fears of all-out war. When asked whether a ground invasion of southern Lebanon could be imminent, a senior Israeli military official said that the IDF is ‘currently focusing on Israel’s aerial campaign only’.

Laying out Israel’s aims in the campaign against Hezbollah, the official told journalists that it wants to degrade the militants’ ability to fire rockets over the border, as it has done for 11 months. They reportedly added that it hopes to push Hezbollah fighters back from the border and destroy the group’s infrastructure, which the official said would be used to attack ‘Israeli communities in the north, to massacre, murder, and kidnap Israeli civilians’.

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