Israel has carried out a devastating wave of air raids in Lebanon’s capital Beirut that it said targeted the headquarters of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
A series of massive explosions sent huge clouds of smoke soaring above the densely populated Haret Hreik neighbourhood in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut, around dusk on Friday.
Waves of attacks continued early on Saturday, pushing thousands of residents to flee the area.
On Saturday, Israel claimed that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an air strike on Dahiyeh, but Hezbollah did not immediately issue a statement on his fate.
At least six people were killed and 91 others were wounded in the attacks, according to Lebanese health authorities, with the toll expected to rise much higher.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it has mobilised three reserve battalions to bolster its Central Command defence amid escalating conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“It’s been a long night of violence with near nonstop Israeli attacks targeting neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reported from Beirut.
“People there are making their way out … but there is a lot of concern that this is just the beginning.”
The Israeli military said the initial attack on Friday targeted the Iran-aligned group’s “central headquarters”, which it said were “embedded under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut”.
Several buildings in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Dahiyeh were reduced to rubble, Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV reported. The blast rattled windows and shook houses some 30km (18 miles) north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen heading to the scene, sirens wailing.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon, said attacks on Beirut’s Haret Hreik suburb have “erased a complete block close to the international airport of Beirut” and about six to nine buildings were either completely or partially destroyed.
“Israel has been working deliberately … on hitting the southern suburb of Beirut, targeting Hezbollah commanders in different areas to dismantle the command chain of the group,” he added.
The initial attack was followed by an unprecedented five hours of continuous attacks early on Saturday. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said hospitals in the area would be evacuated and called on unaffected hospitals to stop receiving non-urgent cases temporarily.
Israel has previously attacked targets in Dahiyeh four times over the last week, killing at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
But the latest assault was far more powerful, with multiple blasts shaking windows across the city, recalling Israeli air raids during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006.
The bombing started moments after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded his address to UN General Assembly delegates in New York on Friday, in which he pledged to keep up attacks against Hezbollah and fight until “total victory” in Gaza.
The Israeli leader cut short his New York trip to return to Israel amid the onslaught.
A missile from Lebanon was fired at central Israel and fell in an open area, the Israeli army said on Saturday.
‘Serious escalation’
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack on southern Beirut showed Israel did not care about global calls for a Lebanon ceasefire.
Iran’s embassy in Lebanon said the attack represented a “serious escalation” and that the “perpetrator will be punished appropriately”.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the United States had no advance warning of the deadly strike on Dahiyeh on Friday evening and that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as the operation was under way.
“The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
It appeared to be the most powerful attack in almost a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which have traded near-daily cross-border fire since October, when the Lebanese group said it would carry out attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war on the territory.
The fighting has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Israeli military has escalated the conflict dramatically in recent days. At least 25 people were killed in Israeli attacks early on Friday, Health Minister Firass Abiad said, bringing the death toll in Lebanon this week to more than 720. He said the dead included dozens of women and children.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said that operations against Hezbollah would “continue until we meet our objectives”.
