The Israeli military launched what it called preemptive strikes in Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah early Sunday morning, ratcheting up already elevated tensions that could tip into a full-on regional war even as efforts continue to forge a cease-fire in Gaza.
The predawn strikes, which began before 5 a.m. local time, hit areas in Lebanon’s south, where Hezbollah has for more than 10 months engaged in an escalating tit-for-tat fight with Israel. Hezbollah has also vowed to avenge the death of its senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, whom Israel assassinated in an airstrike on the Lebanese capital last month.
In a statement, the Israeli army said Hezbollah was “preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. In response to these threats, the [Israel Defense Forces are] striking terror targets in Lebanon.”
The Israeli military said it used more than 100 warplanes to target thousands of rocket launchers poised to attack northern Israel.
Residents in Lebanon’s south reported a series of explosions around 4:45 a.m., with more than 40 strikes targeting at least a dozen villages and towns across the country’s south and forested areas near the border with Israel. (Hezbollah has been using foliage as cover for its operations.)
Many said the strikes were unprecedented in their intensity and power.
“It’s the first time we heard sounds like this. The whole town was shaking,” said one resident in Ibl al-Saqi, a town about five miles north of the Lebanese-Israeli border, who didn’t give his name for reasons of privacy.
The effect of the strikes remained unclear Sunday morning, but Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that one person was killed and two others injured and that strikes had caused extensive damage to water and electricity infrastructure in towns in south Lebanon.
Israel declared a state of emergency for 48 hours and temporarily suspended flights from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport before restarting operations at 7 a.m. Air raid sirens blared across Israel’s north.
Hezbollah launched a barrage of some 320 Katyusha rockets, targeting 11 military sites in Israel’s north in what it said in a statement was a “preliminary response” to Shukr’s assassination and the killing of “women and children” in the same strike.
It also said it launched drones targeting “a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later.”
The group also noted it is carrying out the attacks on Arbaeen, the day when Shiite Muslims mark the end of a 40-day mourning period that begins with Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Hussain, grandson of the prophet Muhammad.
“These military operations will take some time to complete, after which a detailed statement will be issued on their proceedings and goals,” Hezbollah said in a statement, adding that the group “was at its highest readiness” and that if civilians are harmed “the punishment will be very severe and harsh.”
The Israeli military sent a message on the Telegram app to residents in south Lebanon early Sunday morning, warning that they are “in danger” and that “we are attacking and eliminating Hezbollah threats.”
“Anyone who is near areas where Hezbollah operates should leave immediately to protect themselves and their families,” the message said.
A later Hezbollah statement said that Israel’s preemptive strikes had failed to stymie its attacks, and that all of its “offensive drones” had crossed the border “towards the desired goal.”
The region has been on edge since the back-to-back assassinations last month of Shukr and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a blast in Tehran for which Israel denies responsibility. Many fear a region-wide conflagration that would pit the U.S. in a fight against Iran.
Shukr’s assassination came after 12 youngsters were killed in a missile strike on Majdal Shams, a town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike; Hezbollah denied the claim.
The U.S. in the last week has spearheaded a push for negotiations in the hope of creating a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip that would mollify Hezbollah and Iran. Negotiators are set to meet in Cairo in the coming days, even as Israel has forged ahead with its onslaught on the enclave, where more than 40,000 people have been killed, Palestinian health authorities say. The war in Gaza began Oct. 7, when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, taking 250 others hostage.
A wider confrontation with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite Islamist group that is part of an alliance with Hamas, would plunge Israel into a multi-front war with an adversary many times stronger than Hamas. Hezbollah has developed an arsenal of some 150,000 rockets, missiles and drones. Since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began a rocket campaign on Israel’s north in solidarity with Hamas, more than 400 Hezbollah fighters have been killed, along with roughly 133 civilians and the displacement of 110,000 others, according to United Nations figures. In Israel and the Golan Heights, 22 soldiers have been killed along with 27 civilians, and 60,000 people have been displaced.
“We are determined to do everything to protect our country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes and continue to follow a simple rule: whoever hurts us, we hurt them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a phone call with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, said that “we are closely following developments in Beirut,” according to a readout.
“We are determined to use all the means at our disposal in order to defend our citizens.”
Austin reaffirmed the United States’ “ironclad commitment to Israel’s defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies,” according to a Pentagon statement.
