Israel mobilising further reserve troops as tensions with Lebanon escalate

The military said on Saturday morning they were activating three battalions of reserve soldiers, after sending two battalions to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.

On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out several strikes on targets in southern Beirut, including Hezbollah’s headquarters in a series of massive explosions that targeted the leader of the militant group and levelled multiple high-rise apartment buildings.

Further strikes were carried out in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strikes on the group’s headquarters, according to two sources, including one US official.

The Israeli army declined to comment on who it was targeting. It was not immediately clear if Mr Nasrallah was at the site and Hezbollah did not comment on the report.

Hours before the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that his country’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.

Mr Netanyahu abruptly cut his United States visit short and returned to Israel. News of the blasts came as Mr Netanyahu was briefing reporters after his UN address. A military aide whispered into his ear, and he quickly ended the briefing.

An attempt to assassinate Mr Nasrallah – successful or not – would be a major escalation. The Pentagon said the US had no advance warning of the strikes.

He has been in hiding for years, rarely appearing in public. He regularly gives speeches, but always by video from unknown locations.

More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict escalated on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The United Nations says the number displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people affected.

At least 20 primary health care centres have shut down in hardest hit areas of Lebanon, the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah attacks continue, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the strikes targeted the main Hezbollah headquarters, saying it was located underground beneath residential buildings.

The series of blasts at around nightfall reduced six apartment towers to rubble in Haret Hreik, a densely populated district of Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburbs, according to Lebanon’s national news agency.

A wall of billowing black and orange smoke rose into the sky as windows were rattled and houses shaken 18 miles north of Beirut.

Footage showed rescue workers clambering over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters were visible, one with a car toppled into it. A stream of residents carrying their belongings were seen fleeing along a main road out of the district.

Israel dramatically intensified its air strikes in Lebanon this week, saying it is determined to put an end to more than 11 months of Hezbollah fire into its territory. The escalated campaign has killed more than 720 people in Lebanon, including dozens of women and children, according to Health Ministry statistics.

A pre-dawn strike on Friday in the border town of Chebaa killed nine members of the same family, the state news agency said.

Israel Defence Forces said its air forces killed Hezbollah missile unit commander Muhammad Ali Ismail, who it said was responsible for directing “numerous terror attacks” against Israel, and his deputy Hussein Ahmad Ismail during an attack in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops towards the border in preparation.

At the UN, Mr Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals. His comments dampened hopes for a US-backed call for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah to allow time for a diplomatic solution. Hezbollah has not responded to the proposal.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack last year, saying it was a show of support for the Palestinians.

Since then, it and the Israeli military have traded fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.

An Israeli security official said he expects the campaign against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza, because the military’s goals are much narrower.

In Gaza, Israel aims to dismantle Hamas’s military and political regime, but the goal in Lebanon is to push Hezbollah away from the border – “not a high bar like Gaza” in terms of operational objectives, said the official.