Israel bombs Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

Photo: Agencew F Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 20 that the army was stepping up strikes against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border. Lebanese state media reported 14 Israeli strikes in a matter of minutes on Khiam.

Cyril Julien – Agence France-Presse and Layal Abou Rahal – Agence France-Presse respectively in Jerusalem and Beirut

Posted at 8:20 AM Updated at 11:35 AM

• Middle East

The Israeli army bombed dozens of Hezbollah targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon on Sunday, and continued its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, where a strike left more than 70 dead the day before according to emergency services.

At war with these Islamist movements supported by Iran, Israel announced that it had targeted a Hezbollah “command center” in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital and carried out airstrikes on dozens of localities in southern Lebanon.

The war, which spread to Lebanon in mid-September, is now raging on two fronts as Israel celebrates the Jewish holiday of Sukkot until October 23, on the last day of which, a year ago, on October 7, Hamas carried out the unprecedented attack on its soil that triggered the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army announced that it had struck “around 175 targets” in the Palestinian territory and Lebanon since the day before, including “weapons warehouses, launch sites and infrastructure” of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Photo: Islam Ahmed Agence France-Presse Palestinians inspect the damage caused by an Israeli airstrike the previous night in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, October 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

50 bombed locations

“Not only are we beating the enemy, we are destroying them in all the villages along the border,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on a visit to northern Israel.

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In Lebanon, more than 50 locations in the south of the country were bombed on Sunday, according to the Ani news agency, which reported “14 successive strikes” in the space of 15 minutes against the village of Khiam.

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The Lebanese army announced the death of three of its soldiers in Israeli fire on one of its vehicles in the south.

The Israeli air force also bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut, one of Hezbollah's strongholds, hitting a residential building in particular ” near a mosque and a hospital,” according to Ani.

The army announced that it had struck a Hezbollah “command center” and an underground weapons site in Beirut, and had killed three Hezbollah officials in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on the city of Haifa and a military base near Safed in northern Israel, and against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Lebanese Shiite movement of attempting to assassinate him after a drone strike targeted his private residence in Caesarea, a coastal city in central Israel, in his absence.

Photo: Jalaa Marey Agence France-Presse A fire rages on a hill after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, on the outskirts of Rosh Pinna in the Upper Galilee, on October 20, 2024.

Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the strike, but Iran’s mission to the UN said it was behind the attack.

“Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, which tried to assassinate me and my wife, made a grave mistake,” the prime minister said. “I say to the Iranians and their partners in the axis of evil: whoever tries to harm the citizens of Israel will pay a high price,” he added.

These accusations amplify fears of a military escalation in the Middle East, as Israel has threatened to retaliate for a missile attack launched on October 1 by Iran.

Israel, which launched a campaign of massive air strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 23, then, on the 30th, a ground offensive targeting it in the south of the border country, says it wants to neutralize the Islamist movement there to allow the return home of some 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel, displaced by its incessant rocket fire for a year.

At least 1,454 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official data, and in mid-October, the UN counted nearly 700,000 displaced people.