BEIRUT (AP) – Israel carried out a series of major airstrikes overnight, striking Beirut’s suburbs and targeting key areas between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing Israeli shelling. Border checkpoints were closed.
The explosion in Beirut’s southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings in the Lebanese capital several kilometers away. The Israeli military has not commented on what the intended target is, and no information on casualties is yet available. Lebanon’s state news agency reported more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area.
Meanwhile, as fighting continues between Israel and the militants, the Israeli military announced on Friday that Hezbollah had fired about 100 rockets into Israel.
A photographer runs for cover as smoke rises in the background after an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The Israeli military announced on Friday that an airstrike in Beirut the day before killed Hezbollah communications chief Mohamed Rashid Skafi. The military said in a statement that Skaffi was a “senior Hezbollah terrorist who was in charge of the signal unit since 2000” and had “close ties” to senior Hezbollah officials.
Strikes along the Lebanese-Syrian border, about 50 kilometers east of Beirut, on Thursday closed roads near the busy Masna border crossing.
Israel said it targeted the crossing because Hezbollah uses it to transport military equipment across the border. It said a fighter jet crashed into a tunnel used to smuggle weapons into Lebanon from Iran and other agencies.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria. The group is present on both sides of the border and fights alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the region.
Video footage from the Associated Press showed two large craters on either side of the road. Unable to pass through the strike site, people got out of their cars and crossed on foot, carrying bags with their belongings.
Flames erupt from an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Mara)
People check damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Tens of thousands of people fleeing the war in Lebanon have entered Syria in the past two weeks.
The new wave of attacks comes after Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 that prompted Israelis to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon, which includes but extends beyond what the United Nations has declared a buffer zone. It happened after warning people.
Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon on Tuesday, with Israeli forces clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow area along the border. A series of attacks before the invasion killed some of the group’s key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (second from left) meets with Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati (right) in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut on Friday for talks with Lebanese officials. He warned that if Israel attacks Iran, Iran will retaliate in harsh ways.
Aragushi’s visit to Beirut came three days after Iran fired at least 180 missiles at Israel. This is the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to bring the Middle East closer to regional war.
“If Israeli entities take any steps or actions against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the last time,” Aragushi said after a meeting with Lebanese parliament speaker Navi Berri. .
Iran is a major supporter of Hezbollah, sending arms and billions of dollars to the group over the years.
This photo, published by the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader’s Office, shows Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei (second from right), Attorney General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei (right), and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bahel Qalibaf (left). President Masoud Pezeshkian reads the Quran. At a ceremony in memory of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Associated Press)
In Iran’s capital Tehran, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers and gave a speech praising the country’s recent missile attacks on Israel, saying Iran is ready to carry out further attacks if necessary. said.
He spoke to thousands of people at the Mosala Mosque, the capital’s main place of prayer, which was decorated with a giant Palestinian flag.
The strikes at major border crossings marked the first border crossings to be cut off since the start of the war. The Lebanese General Security Authority estimates that 256,614 Syrians and 82,264 Lebanese nationals were killed in Syria between September 23, when Israel began heavy shelling of southern and eastern Lebanon, and September 30. Recorded entry into the territory.
There are six border crossings between the two countries, most of which remain open. Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works said that all border crossing points between Lebanon and Syria are functioning under state supervision.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in near-daily firefights across Lebanon’s southern border since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, with the militants killing 1,200 Israelis and killing 250 others. was taken hostage.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced on Thursday that it carried out an attack in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank, in coordination with the internal security agency Shin Bet.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 18 people were killed in Israeli attacks on refugee camps.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, violence has escalated throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. The worst violence has occurred in Tulkarem and other northern cities.
Israel declared war on Hamas in response to the group’s attack on the Gaza Strip on October 7. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the region since then, with just over half of the dead being women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon during this period, most of them since September 23, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israeli military said Friday that militants in Gaza fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has fired rockets from Gaza in about a month.
The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and the other landed in an open field near a kibbutz across the border with Gaza.
The number of rockets fired from Gaza toward Israel has decreased significantly since the start of the war.
