Israel has carried out extensive airstrikes on southern Lebanon, saying its warplanes hit more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers and other “terrorist sites,” including a weapons storage center.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the launchers were ready to be fired at Israel. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israel had carried out at least 52 strikes in the south of the country on Thursday evening. Hezbollah also announced that it had launched strikes on military sites in northern Israel.
The Israeli airstrikes, which lasted more than two hours, were among the most intense in recent conflict.
Israel on Friday morning lifted the movement restriction orders it had issued Thursday for communities in the Golan Heights and parts of northern Israel, its military confirmed.
The Israeli military added that it would conduct “activities in training areas” in northern Israel over the weekend and that “gunfire and explosions” could be heard in nearby settlements.
Earlier, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the deadly explosions earlier this week “crossed all red lines.” accusing Israel of what he called a declaration of war.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attacks – which saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode simultaneously across the country – on Tuesday and Wednesday, which Lebanese authorities say left 37 dead and 3,000 injured.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was entering a “new phase of the war,” focusing more of its efforts on the north.
Cross-border fighting, which had been sporadic until then, intensified on October 8, 2023 – the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from Gaza – when Hezbollah fired on Israeli positions in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Since then, hundreds of people, mostly Hezbollah fighters, have been killed in cross-border fighting, while tens of thousands have also been displaced on both sides of the border.
Chief nurse Hisham Bawadi told the BBC that the medical centre where he works in Beirut received a “tsunami of patients” after the explosions.
“Most of the injuries were to the face, mainly to the eyes, the face was hit, the upper limbs and some injuries to the abdomen,” he said.
A number of planned surgeries will take place over the weekend to “cope with the high number of casualties” caused by the pager explosions, he added.
Two companies based in Taiwan and Hungary, accused in the media of manufacturing the pagers, have both denied responsibility, with the Taiwanese government saying that the various parts of the pagers did not come from Taiwan.
“The components are low-end integrated circuits and batteries, I can say with certainty that they were not made in Taiwan,” Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei said.
Bulgaria’s state security agency DANS also said that none of the pagers that exploded in Tuesday’s bombings in Lebanon were imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria, after local media reported that a Bulgarian company had facilitated the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it was acting in support of the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Both are backed by Iran and considered terrorist organizations by Israel, the United Kingdom and other countries.
In a statement released Thursday evening, the Israeli military said its warplanes “struck approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1,000 barrels ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory.”
“The Israeli military will continue to operate to degrade the infrastructure and capabilities of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in order to defend the State of Israel.”
Lebanese security sources cited by Reuters news agency and the New York Times said the Israeli strikes were among the most intense since the start of the Gaza war last October.
The Israeli military also urged residents of northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, to avoid large gatherings, monitor their neighborhoods and stay near bomb shelters.
On Thursday morning, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon fired two anti-tank missiles across the border, followed by drones.
The Israeli military said two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third seriously wounded.
In his televised speech on Thursday, Hassan Nasrallah said of the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday: “The enemy has broken all rules, all laws and all red lines. It has not cared about anything at all, neither morally, nor humanly, nor legally.”
He added: “This is a massacre, a major aggression against Lebanon, its people, its resistance, its sovereignty and its security. It can be called a war crime or a declaration of war – whatever name you give it, it is deserved and fits the description. This was the enemy’s intention.”
As Nasrallah spoke, Israeli warplanes sent sonic booms over Beirut, frightening an already exhausted population, while others struck targets in southern Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader acknowledged that it was a severe and unprecedented blow to his group, but insisted that its ability to command and communicate remained intact.
Nasrallah’s tone was provocative and he promised severe punishment. But he again indicated that Hezbollah was not interested in an escalation of the current conflict with Israel.
The group’s cross-border attacks, he said, will continue unless a ceasefire is established in Gaza, and no killings or assassinations will bring residents back to northern Israel.
The Israeli military said Thursday that its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, had “recently completed approval of plans for the northern arena.”
Gallant later said that “in the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks.”
“Hezbollah feels it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue,” he added.
“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of communities in northern Israel to their homes. Over time, Hezbollah will have to pay an ever-increasing price.”
It is unclear how Israel intends to achieve this goal. But reports earlier this week suggested that the general in charge of the Israeli military’s Northern Command favors creating an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on all sides to exercise restraint.
“We do not want to see escalatory actions by any party” that would make the goal of a ceasefire in Gaza more difficult, he said as he joined European foreign ministers in Paris to discuss the widening crisis.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was also present at the talks in Paris, called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that the Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and the Lebanese can return to their homes,” he said.
