Lebanon’s Hezbollah reentered direct confrontation with Israel, firing rockets and drones at military sites inside Israel in what it said was backing for Iran and revenge for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Israel’s army responded with wide-ranging airstrikes on Lebanon that killed at least 31 people and wounded 149, as Israeli officials warned they would target the group’s secretary-general.
The flare-up was Hezbollah’s first attack on Israel since a ceasefire reached in November 2024 ended more than a year of hostilities, raising the prospect of a reopened Lebanon front as the region is already roiled by the war involving Iran.
Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel late yesterday that it struck the Israeli army’s “Mishmar HaCarmel” missile-defense site south of Haifa with “precision” rockets and a swarm of drones, saying the operation was to “defend Lebanon and its people,” respond to repeated Israeli attacks, and that “the continuation of assassinations and attacks grants the resistance the right to respond at the appropriate time and place.”
Israel’s army said it intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon, while other projectiles fell in open areas in Israel. It held Hezbollah fully responsible for any escalation before beginning what it called a “large-scale” aerial response.
The Israeli army launched strikes on sites in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, claiming it hit “Hezbollah targets,” and saying the strikes in the suburbs killed “a number of its senior leaders.” The strikes killed 31 people and wounded 149 in Lebanon, with 20 of the deaths in Beirut’s southern suburbs and 11 in the south..
At dawn on Monday, Beirut residents woke to the sound of about a dozen explosions that rattled windows across the capital, while warplanes and blasts were heard in the south, with buildings collapsing in villages near Tyre.
Israel’s army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said Israel had “launched an offensive campaign against Hezbollah,” expecting “many” days of fighting, with the army having moved from defense to offense.
Zamir said the Israeli army deployed about 100,000 reservists, many of them on the border with Lebanon, and Israel issued calls for displacement and the evacuation of 55 villages and towns across Lebanon. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also said there was “mass displacement from the southern suburbs and the south after the series of Israeli strikes.”
BBC Arabic quoted an Israeli military spokesman saying, when asked about the possibility of a ground operation, that “all options are on the table,” while Haaretz reported the Israeli army is preparing for the possibility of an operation inside Lebanese territory to create a defensive line separating Hezbollah from Israeli settlements along the border fence.
Amid the escalation, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah’s secretary-general Naim Qassem had “become a target for liquidation,” warning the group it would pay a “heavy price” for its decision to attack Israel.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon, calling it “an irresponsible act” that jeopardizes the country’s security and gives Israel pretexts to continue its attacks. He said the government “will not allow Lebanon to be dragged into new adventures,” and would take the necessary steps to stop the perpetrators and protect civilians.
The escalation comes as the United States and Israel launched an ongoing war against Iran on Saturday, aiming to halt its nuclear program and topple the ruling regime. They succeeded in killing a number of senior regime figures, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prompting Tehran to target Tel Aviv and several US bases in the Middle East.
Hezbollah had previously opened a support front for Hamas against the Israeli military after Al-Aqsa Flood. That confrontation lasted from October 2023 through the end of 2024 and cost the group many senior and mid-level commanders, along with a large share of its weapons stockpile, before the November 2024 ceasefire halted the fighting.
