Israel-Lebanon latest: Intense strikes on Hezbollah launched by Israeli military as it warns civilians to flee
Threat of all-out regional war grows as Israel denies involvement in deadly pager attacks
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The Israeli military has told residents of southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate homes and other buildings where Hezbollah stores weapons as it says it is carrying out “extensive strikes” against the militant group.
It was the first warning of its kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire on Sunday. Israel said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets at northern Israel.
Residents in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon have now been told to evacuate as Israeli airstrikes on the area are imminent.
Israeli Arabic-language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, warning that another “raid will begin in the near future”.
“Evacuate the houses where [Hezbollah] weapons are hidden immediately! Hezbollah is lying to you and sacrificing you,” he wrote.
“Hezbollah says that you are its environment and that you are its audience, but it seems that its missiles and drones are more valuable and important to it than you.”
What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
This week saw a dizzying escalation in the 11-month-old conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group?
What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Israel has declared a ‘new phase of war’ on its border with Lebanon
Watch: Israel hit by Hezbollah rockets in biggest attack yet
Israel said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after Hezbollah launched just over 100 rockets at northern Israel in the most intense skirmish since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.
Israel closed schools and in many northern areas of the country and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights early on Sunday, with reports of rockets hitting Haifa, a port city around 17 miles from the Lebanon border.
In this video from Haifa, northern Israel, a number of vehicles can be seen ablaze on a residential street on Sunday.
Netanyahu says Israel has hit Hezbollah in ways it could not imagine
Israel has in recent days hit Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in ways it could not imagine, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.
Israel denies involvement with pager attack
Israel has denied having any involvement with a deadly exploding pager attack which injured thousands of people across Lebanon and Syria.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog said he “rejects out of hand any connection” to the audacious operation carried out against Hezbollah on Tuesday.
At least 39 people were injured and 3,000 were wounded after the Shi’ite militia’s pagers and walkie-talkies simultaneously detonated across the Middle East.
Who is Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike?
Just hours after Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets over Lebanon’s southern border into Israel on Friday, an apartment block around 70 miles north in Beirut was flattened by an Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted attack, which ended up killing 31 people, including 15 Hezbollah operatives, as well as wounding 68 others.
The strike was the third devastating blow to the Shi’ite militia in four days after the explosion of the group’s pagers and walkie-talkies killed over 30 and wounded hundreds in a suspected Israeli attack.
One of those slain was Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, after multiple missiles tore into the side of the building he was in the basement of while meeting other Hezbollah members.
Aqil, 61, was described as one of the group’s “top leaders” by Israel.The Independent takes a look at who he was below:
Who is Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike?
Ibrahim Aqil was killed after multiple Israeli missiles tore into the side of an apartment block in Beirut on Friday
Israeli military says it intercepts ‘aerial target’ launched from the east
Israel’s military said on Sunday that it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” launched from the east, and that no damage or injuries were reported.
Earlier, an official in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a grouping of Iran-backed armed factions, said they launched cruise missile and explosive drone attacks at Israel.
Hezbollah and Israel exchange rocket fire in most intense skirmish yet
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged rocket fire across the southern Lebanon border in the most intense skirmish since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.
The Israeli military said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after the Shi’ite militia launched just over 100 rockets at northern Israel.
Israel closed schools and in many northern areas of the country and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights early on Sunday, with reports of rockets hitting Haifa, around 17 miles from the Lebanon border.
‘Sequence of actions in new phase will continue until our goal is achieved’, warns Israeli defence minister
The Israeli defence minister has warned that his country’s new phase of war “will continue until our goal is achieved”.
Yoav Gallant, who said this week Israel was launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X on Friday: "The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes."
Tens of thousands of people have left their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in October in sympathy with Palestinians in Gaza.
BREAKING: Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after group’s retaliation
Israel‘s military said it is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after the Lebanese group’s initial response to deadly remote explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies days earlier.
This comes shortly after more than 100 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon early today, with some landing near the northern city of Haifa, as Israel and the Hezbollah militant group appeared to be spiralling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions.
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