Lebanon’s Hezbollah reentered direct confrontation with Israel, firing rockets and drones at military sites inside the occupied territories in what it said was backing for Iran and revenge for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Israel’s army responded with a wave of wide-ranging airstrikes on Lebanon that killed at least 31 people and wounded 149, as Israeli officials warned they would target the group’s secretary-general.
Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel late Sunday that it struck the Israeli army’s “Mishmar HaCarmel” missile-defense site south of Haifa with “precision” rockets and a swarm of drones, saying the operation came as part of “defending Lebanon and its people” and responding to repeated Israeli attacks.
It added that “the continuation of assassinations and attacks grants the resistance the right to respond at the appropriate time and place.”
It was Hezbollah’s first attack on Israel since the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 ended more than a year of hostilities between the two sides, despite Israel’s continued breaches through repeated strikes in Lebanon on the pretext of “bombarding Hezbollah terrorists.”
Israel’s army, for its part, said it intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon, while other projectiles fell in open areas in the occupied territories, holding Hezbollah fully responsible for any escalation before beginning what it called a “large-scale” aerial response.
The Israeli army launched strikes on sites in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, claiming it hit “Hezbollah targets,” and saying the strikes in the suburbs killed “a number of its senior leaders.” Lebanon’s initial toll, however, reported the killing of 31 people and the wounding of 149, including 20 killed in Beirut’s southern suburbs and 11 in the south.
At dawn on Monday, Beirut residents woke to the sound of about 12 explosions that rattled windows across the capital, while the sound of warplanes and bombs was heard in the south, with buildings collapsing in villages near Tyre, Asharq reported.
In the same context, Israel’s army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said Israel had “launched an offensive battle against Hezbollah,” expecting “many days of fighting,” and saying the army had “moved from defense to offense.”
Zamir said the Israeli army deployed about 100,000 reservists, many of them on the border with Lebanon, and Israel issued calls for displacement and the evacuation of 55 villages and towns across Lebanon. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also said there was “mass displacement from the southern suburbs and the south after the series of Israeli strikes.”
BBC Arabic quoted an Israeli military spokesman saying in response to a question about the possibility of a ground operation that “all options are on the table,” while Haaretz reported the Israeli army is preparing for the possibility of an operation inside Lebanese territory to create a defensive line separating Hezbollah from Israeli settlements along the fence.
Amid the escalation, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah’s secretary-general Naim Qassem had “become a target for liquidation,” warning the group it would pay a “heavy price” for its decision to attack Israel.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, for his part, condemned the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon, calling it “an irresponsible act” that jeopardizes the country’s security and gives Israel pretexts to continue its attacks. He said the government “will not allow Lebanon to be dragged into new adventures,” and would take the necessary steps to protect civilians.
The United States and Israel began a war that has continued through today against Iran on Saturday, aiming to stop it from completing its nuclear program and to change the ruling regime. They succeeded in killing a number of regime leaders, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prompting Tehran to target Tel Aviv and several U.S. bases in the Middle East.
Hezbollah previously entered a support war for Hamas against Israel’s army after the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a confrontation that ran from October 2023 through the end of 2024, in which Hezbollah lost first- and second-tier leaders and also a large portion of its weapons stockpile.
