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.
Read more:
Anxious families line pavement as dozens still missing after strike
Herzog denial doesn’t tally with background talks – analysis
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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
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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Israeli pilots’ letter reveals deepening rift
Seriously ill children from Gaza allowed into UK
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
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.
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