Hundreds of thousands of people yesterday sought shelter from Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, the military said, as a UN official warned of imminent regional “catastrophe” from the worsening violence.
Israel has signaled its intention to turn its focus to Iran-backed Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fire that began with the outbreak of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Further exchanges of fire came after military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari late on Saturday said that dozens of Israeli warplanes were “widely” striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Photo: AFP
Hezbollah — which said it is acting in support of ally Hamas — has been dealt a serious blow this week.
Deadly attacks targeted its communications and devastated the leadership of its elite unit, although its ability to fight has not been crushed, analysts said.
An Israeli airstrike on Friday killed the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, whose funeral in Beirut was yesterday expected to draw large crowds.
Photo: Reuters
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote on social media.
The death toll from Friday’s attack on a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut rose again yesterday, reaching 45, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
The Israeli army said more than 100 projectiles had been fired from Lebanon early yesterday.
“Hundreds of thousands of people had to take refuge in bomb shelters” across northern Israel, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
The military said it launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to the rocket fire and “to prevent a larger-scale attack,” Shoshani said.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers yesterday raided al-Jazeera’s office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and issued a 45-day closure order, the Qatari-based broadcaster said.
Israel’s government last week announced it was revoking the press credentials of al-Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.
“There is a court ruling for closing down al-Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told al-Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live.
“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said, according to the footage, which showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the office in Ramallah.
The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.
Al-Omari said the closure order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism,” al-Jazeera said.
“Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” the bureau chief said.
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