A wave of air raids hit Beirut's southern suburbs early on Saturday as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Iran-backed movement's command centre that apparently targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20
airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern
suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in
downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
"They want to destroy Dahiye,
they want to destroy all of us," said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only
his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation
order. Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut's Martyrs Square rolled mats onto
the ground to tried to sleep.
An unprecedented five hours of
continuous strikes early on Saturday followed Friday's attack, by far the most
powerful by Israel on Beirut during nearly a year of war with Hezbollah. It
marked a sharp escalation of a conflict that has involved daily missile and
rocket fire between the two sides.
The latest escalation has sharply
increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing
in Iran, Hezbollah's principal backer, as well as the United States.
There was no immediate confirmation
of Nasrallah's fate after Friday's heavy strikes, but a source close to
Hezbollah told Reuters he was not
reachable. The Lebanese armed group has not made a statement.
Israel has not said whether it tried
to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said top Hezbollah commanders
were targeted.
"I think it's too early to
say... Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed," the Israeli official
told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah
told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported
he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was
checking his status.
The Israeli military said in a
statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah's missile unit,
Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
DEATH TOLL RISES
Hours before the latest barrage,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his
country had a right to continue the campaign.
"As long as Hezbollah chooses
the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove
this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely," he said.
Several delegations walked out as
Netanyahu approached the lectern. He later cut short his
New York trip to return to Israel.
Lebanese health authorities
confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in the initial attack on Friday - the fourth
on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest
since a 2006 war.
The toll appeared likely to rise
much higher. There was no word on casualties from the later strikes. More than
700 people were killed in strikes over the past week, authorities said.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television
reported seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the
target was an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
Hours later, the Israeli military
told residents in parts of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted
missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian
housing.
Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms
depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the
Lebanese armed group's media office said in a statement.
Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of a
neighbourhood Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with
his wife and three children.
"We found out on the
television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood," he said. The
family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in
traffic with others trying to flee.
"We're going to the mountains.
We'll see how to spend the night - and tomorrow we'll see what we can do."
Around 100,000 people in Lebanon
have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to
well over 200,000.
Israel's government has said that
returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.
FEAR THE FIGHTING WILL SPREAD
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of
rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group
said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a
woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel's air defence systems have
ensured the damage has so far been minimal.
Iran, which said Friday's attack
crossed "red lines", accused Israel of using U.S.-made
"bunker-busting" bombs.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
said Washington was not informed of that strike beforehand. President Joe Biden
was being kept abreast of developments.
At the U.N., where the annual
General Assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of
concern including by France, which with the U.S. has proposed a 21-day
ceasefire.
"This must be brought to an end
immediately," French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council
meeting.
At a New York press conference, U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "We believe the way forward is
through diplomacy, not conflict... We will continue to work intentionally with
all parties to urge them to choose that course."
Hezbollah opened the latest bout in
a decades-long conflict with a missile barrage against Israel immediately
following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas
in Gaza last
year.