By Emily Rose and Maya Gebeily
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel struck several targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressuring Iran-backed Hezbollah with more strikes after launching a major offensive that killed the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said the air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers aimed at Israeli territory, structures where weapons are stored and additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”.
The navy has intercepted a projectile approaching Israel from the Red Sea area and another eight projectiles coming from Lebanon have fallen in the open area, he said in a statement.
Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on the group’s headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It was a major blow to Hezbollah and Iran, removing an influential ally that helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Israel announced the killing on Saturday and Hezbollah later confirmed the death.
In its announcement, Hezbollah said it would continue to fight Israel and continue to fire rockets, including a salvo on Sunday morning.
Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic two weeks for Hezbollah, beginning with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel is widely believed to have carried out the act but has neither confirmed nor denied it.
The escalation has heightened fears that the conflict could spiral out of control, possibly involving Iran as well as the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting in parallel with Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas since the Iranian-backed Palestinian group’s attack on Israel last October 7.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 33 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Saturday, bringing the death toll since hostilities on October 8 last year to more than 1,670, including 104 children.
In Beirut, displaced families camped out on benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes along Beirut’s waterfront, where private security usually turned away pedestrians.
On Sunday mornings, families who have no clothes just wrap themselves in clothes to sleep in and drink tea for themselves.
“You will not be able to destroy us, whatever you do, how much you bomb, how much you move people – we will stay here. We will not leave. This is our country and we are staying,” said Francoise Azori, a resident of Beirut jogging through the area.
The United Nations World Food Program said in a statement on Sunday that it had launched an emergency operation to provide food to up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon.
‘BALANCE OF POWER’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday Nasrallah’s assassination was a necessary step to “change the balance of power in the region over the past several years”.
“Nasrallah is not a terrorist, he is a terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of the coming days.
Israel said it killed senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki and other commanders along with Nasrallah.
US President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the US fully supports Israel’s right to self-defense.
But when asked whether an Israeli attack on Lebanon was inevitable, Biden told reporters on Saturday: “It’s time for a ceasefire.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a safe location in Iran after Nasrallah’s assassination, sources told Reuters. Khamenei said Nasrallah’s death would be avenged and his path against Israel would be followed by other militants.
Tehran called for a UN Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, warning against attacks on diplomatic facilities and representations.
A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in Friday’s attack, Iranian media reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s war is not with the Lebanese. He held talks on Saturday about the possibility of expanding Israel’s military offensive in the north, his office said.
Hezbollah has said it will cease fire only when Israel’s attack on Gaza ends. Hamas and other Hezbollah allies issued statements mourning his death.
I’m sorry CHRISTIAN
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s assassination had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”. Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shiite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing them of dragging Lebanon into a regional conflict.
“We offer our personal condolences to the family and community of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said in his sermon.
Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil strife. Critics of Lebanon’s Hezbollah say the group is unilaterally dragging the country into conflict and destroying it.
