Real fear for millions in Lebanon as border clashes escalate and Hezbollah-Israel confrontation enters ‘new phase’
Hezbollah’s deputy chief signalled the group had entered a “new phase” in its battle with Israel as thousands gathered in Beirut for the funeral of a key commander killed in an airstrike on Friday.
The militant group’s second in command, Naim Qassem, vowed to press on with greater intensity with rocket attacks into northern Israel until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza.
Thousands listened in the Lebanese capital as he said Hezbollah had entered an “open-ended battle of reckoning” with its neighbour and vowed to hit back at Israel with even more power and force.
Hezbollah supporters chanted for revenge
“Israel has targeted not only fighters but also children, paramedics, pharmacies, homes and all innocent lives,” he said. “Such actions cannot be justified.”
His tough rhetoric matched that of the Israeli prime minister – who promised in a video message: “Over the past few days, we hit Hezbollah with a string of strikes that it didn’t imagine.
“If Hezbollah didn’t get the message, I promise you, it will get the message,” Benjamin Netanyahu warned.
“We will do everything necessary to restore security” to the north, he said.
Naim Qassem led prayers at the funeral. Pic: Reuters
The funeral of senior Hezbollah senior leader Ibrahim Aqil was held on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Hezbollah is the strongest militant group allied with Iran and is also an ally of Hamas.
It opened up a new front in the war when it started firing rockets into Israel the day after October’s Hamas attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,000 people and saw 250 taken hostage.
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin
It has repeatedly said it will not stop firing into Israel until there’s a ceasefire.
Friday’s Israeli airstrikes in the Hezbollah heartland of Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil – one of its most senior military commanders and founder of the elite Radwan Force.
He was a man who had been on the US most-wanted list for decades and whom Israeli forces said “had the blood of many people on his hands”.
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Lebanon hit by more airstrikes
But women sobbed and the Hezbollah fighters acting as funeral bearers cried as they mourned the loss of a man many loyalists see as a hero.
They chanted for revenge and marched towards the burial ground known as the “Martyrs’ graveyard”, professing loyalty to the group which is a proscribed terror organisation in the US and UK.
At the same time further south in Lebanon, there were several funerals for civilians – mothers, children, whole families who were killed in the same airstrikes.
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Hezbollah fires rockets into Israel
They were in one of two residential apartments hit by the strikes.
Israeli forces say the attack was targeted at the commander and a group of his elite forces meeting deep underneath one of the high-rise blocks. But multiple civilians including children were also killed alongside 16 Hezbollah fighters.
The death toll at the time of writing is more than 40.
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Real fear after triple attack
The airstrikes in a densely populated part of Beirut followed two days of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploding around the country.
The three attacks in a week seem to have drawn the country together in grief and defiance – but there is also a real sense of fear among millions of people across Lebanon.
Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran
However, even as global leaders urged restraint and politicians in the UK and America urged their citizens to leave the country while they still can, both Israel and Lebanon intensified their exchanges along the border.
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‘Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon’ – Herzog
Israeli warplanes launched hundreds of airstrikes over the weekend, pounding Lebanese villages in the south, while Hezbollah fired a salvo of long-range rockets reaching the deepest into Israeli territory in nearly a year.
Lebanese government ministers who are not Hezbollah have denounced Israel’s actions as “war crimes”.
Thousands gathered in Beirut for the funeral
Its foreign minister said the attacks had resulted in a collective feeling that “no one is safe” and the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, warned of the risk of “transforming Lebanon into another Gaza”.
But perhaps the most telling comments came from one of those who turned out at the commander’s funeral in Beirut.
A young 18-year-old university student called Hussein told us: “We are in a war… it is an open war… They [Israelis] bombed us three times this week… including the pager and walkie-talkie thing.”
‘My future is being broken in front of my eyes,’ says Hussein
He went on: “You can’t blame us for being negative… they are bombing us… If you were bombed in Britain or America, you would say that’s terrorism…We can also say this is terrorism… we are being killed, my future is being broken in front of my eyes… and I hate it.”
Alex Crawford reports from Beirut with camera Jake Britton, producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon producers Jihad Jneid, Sami Zein and Hwaida Saad
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.
So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.
This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.
The pilots’ protest letter
Part of the letter translated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.
But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.
That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas.
Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.
“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.
It’s not the first time Israeli pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.
“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.
“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”
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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza
Anti-government campaign spreads
Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.
More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.
Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.
He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the authors of the original letter as ‘bad apples’. Pic: AP
He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.
A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.
Threat of dismissal
The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.
We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.
“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.
The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.
Read more:
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Seriously ill Gaza kids arrive in UK
Israeli minister called a ‘war criminal’
It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.
The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
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