Israel has conducted extensive airstrikes in southern Lebanon, targeting over 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers and various “terrorist sites,” including a weapons storage facility.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the launchers were prepared for use against Israel, though it remains unclear if there were any casualties. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency indicated that Israel carried out at least 52 strikes in the region on Thursday evening. In response, Hezbollah claimed to have launched attacks on military sites in northern Israel.
The Israeli airstrikes, lasting over two hours, were among the most intense in the ongoing conflict. On Friday morning, Israel lifted movement restrictions it had imposed the previous day on communities in the Golan Heights and parts of northern Israel, as confirmed by its military.
The IDF also stated it would conduct “activities in the training areas” of northern Israel over the weekend, warning that “gunshots and explosions” might be heard in nearby settlements.
Earlier, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed that deadly explosions earlier in the week had “crossed all red lines,” accusing Israel of effectively declaring war.
Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the attacks that resulted in simultaneous explosions across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday, which Lebanese authorities reported killed 37 people and injured 3,000.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that Israel is entering a “new phase of the war,” with increased focus on the northern front.
The previously sporadic cross-border fighting intensified on October 8, 2023, the day after an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, when Hezbollah targeted Israeli positions in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Since then, hundreds have died in the cross-border confrontations, mostly Hezbollah fighters, and tens of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border.
Chief nursing officer Hisham Bawadi reported to the BBC that his medical center in Beirut received a “tsunami of patients” following the explosions.
“Most of the injuries were facial with mainly the eyes, the face affected, the upper extremities, and some injuries on the abdomen,” he said.
A number of planned surgeries will be taking place over the weekend to “be able to cater for the high number of casualties” caused by the exploding pagers, he added.
Two firms based in Taiwan and Hungary accused in media reports of manufacturing the pagers have both denied responsibility, with the Taiwanese government saying the different parts of the pagers were not from Taiwan.
“The components are low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries, I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan,” Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei said.
Bulgaria’s state security agency DANS also said none of the pagers that exploded during Tuesday’s bomb attacks in Lebanon were imported to, exported from, or made in Bulgaria, after local media reports said a company there had facilitated the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Both are backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK and other countries.
In a statement late on Thursday, the IDF said its warplanes “struck approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1,000 barrels that were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory”.
“The IDF will continue to operate to degrade the Hezbollah terrorist organisation’s infrastructure and capabilities in order to defend the state of Israel.”
Lebanese security sources cited by Reuters news agency and the New York Times said the Israeli strikes were among the most intense since the war in Gaza began in October last year.
The IDF also urged residents in northern Israel close to the Lebanese border to avoid large gatherings, guard their neighbourhoods and stay close to bomb shelters.
On Thursday morning, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon fired two anti-tank missiles across the border, followed by drones.
The IDF said two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third seriously wounded.
In his televised address on Thursday, Hassan Nasrallah said of Tuesday and Wednesday’s attacks: “The enemy crossed all rules, laws and red lines. It didn’t care about anything at all, not morally, not humanely, not legally.”
He added: “This is massacre, a major aggression against Lebanon, its people, its resistance, its sovereignty, and its security. It can be called war crimes or a declaration of war – whatever you choose to name it, it is deserving and fits the description. This was the enemy’s intention.”
As Nasrallah spoke, Israeli warplanes produced sonic booms over Beirut, alarming an already weary population, while other aircraft targeted locations in southern Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader acknowledged that this was a significant and unprecedented blow to his group, but he asserted that its capacity for command and communication remained unaffected.
Nasrallah’s tone was defiant as he promised severe repercussions. However, he emphasized that Hezbollah was not seeking to escalate the current conflict with Israel.
He stated that cross-border attacks would persist unless a ceasefire in Gaza was established, asserting that no killings or assassinations would return residents to northern Israel.
The IDF said on Thursday that its chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, had “recently completed approval of plans for the northern arena”.
Gallant later said that “in the new phase of the war, there are significant opportunities but also significant risks”.
“Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue,” he added.
“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price.”
It is not clear how Israel intends to achieve this goal. But reports earlier this week suggested that the general in charge of the IDF’s Northern Command favoured the creation of an Israeli-controlled buffer zone inside southern Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for restraint on all sides.
“We don’t want to see any escalatory actions by any party” that would make the goal of achieving a ceasefire in Gaza more difficult, he said as he joined European foreign ministers in Paris to discuss the widening crisis.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was also at the talks in Paris, called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes,” he said.