Lebanon: Israel intensifies air raids on the south and hits Beirut suburbs

The Israeli army carried out an air raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, and a dozen deadly strikes on a city in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, after the Israeli Prime Minister said he was opposed to any “unilateral” ceasefire.

An airstrike targeted the Haret Hreik neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut in the early morning, minutes after an evacuation order was issued by the Israeli army, which said it had struck a Hezbollah “strategic weapons” warehouse.

This is the first strike in several days on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the Israeli army has concentrated its raids since launching its massive strikes in Lebanon nearly a month ago, before targeting other Hezbollah strongholds in the east and south of the country and beyond.

The United States said Tuesday it was “opposed” to Israel's bombing campaign on Beirut.

Smoke rises over the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh after an Israeli strike, October 16, 2024 © AFP – Abbas Fakih

In southern Lebanon, Howaida Turk, the governor of Nabatiyeh, reported about ten Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday on her capital, a stronghold of the two allied Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal.

The mayor of the city of Nabatiyeh, Ahmad Kahil, was killed in the attack that targeted two buildings in the municipality, as well as “several people,” she added, describing it as “a massacre.”

The Health Ministry reported a death toll of at least five. Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned a “deliberate” strike on the “assembled municipal council” in Nabatiyeh.

– “Dozens of targets” –

The Israeli military said it had targeted “dozens of Hezbollah targets” in the city, including “terrorist infrastructure, Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities.”

Its naval forces struck dozens of other targets “in coordination with ground troops,” it added.

Rescuers search for possible survivors among the rubble after an overnight Israeli strike on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon on October 16, 2024 © AFP – Bilal KASHMAR

Since September 23, at least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official figures. The UN has counted nearly 700,000 displaced people.

After nearly a year of border firefights with Hezbollah and after weakening the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army moved the front of the war to Lebanon in mid-September.

Israel claims to want to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to its rocket fire, in order to allow the return to northern Israel of some 60,000 residents displaced by the fire of the Lebanese armed movement.

Hezbollah, claiming to act in support of Hamas, opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Despite the heavy blows inflicted on Hezbollah, the Lebanese movement continued to fire on Israel.

It claimed to have launched “a large salvo of missiles” overnight towards northern Israel, where the army reported the firing of 50 missiles from Lebanon, without reporting any casualties.

Hezbollah later announced that it had fired a “guided” missile at an Israeli tank near a Lebanese border village, the day after clashes violent.

Screenshot from Al-Manar TV channel showing Hezbollah's number two, Naim Qassem, delivering a speech from an unknown location, October 15, 2024 © AFP – –

He had said on Tuesday that he would “not be defeated” by the Israeli army, which has been leading a ground offensive in the south of the country since September 30, supported by airstrikes.

Hezbollah's number two, Naim Qassem, warned on Tuesday that his movement would strike “everywhere in Israel”, saying that “the solution” to end the war in Lebanon is “a ceasefire”.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he opposed any “unilateral” ceasefire in Lebanon, which he said would not prevent Hezbollah from regrouping its forces in the border area.

– “Killings” –

While Israel continues its offensives against Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas in Gaza, both allies of Tehran, its leaders say they are preparing to respond to the Iranian missile attack on October 1.

Iran “will respond resolutely” to any Israeli attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted during a call Tuesday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Palestinians search for survivors among the rubble after an Israeli strike on Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on October 15, 2025 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

The Iranian minister who is touring the region affirmed, however, that his country “is making considerable efforts to protect the peace and security of the region”.

Its president, Massoud Pezeshkian, called for “greater pressure on Israel's allies” to put an end to “the killings” in Gaza and Lebanon.

After more than a year of war in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have been leading an offensive in the north of the Palestinian territory since October 6, particularly in Jabalia, where, according to them, Hamas is trying to rebuild its forces.

The war was triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by Hamas, which resulted in the death of 1,206 people in Israel, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on October 16, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

At least 42,409 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, in the Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

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