The Israeli army issued fresh evacuation orders in Beirut’s southern suburbs last evening, after which a series of loud blasts were heard in the area near the airport.
Hezbollah is also engaged in ongoing clashes with Israeli troops in the Lebanon border area during ground raids. It said in a statement that Israeli soldiers tried to approach the village of Adaysseh when their operatives confronted them.
Three hospitals in Lebanon were forced to suspend work after damages due to Israeli strikes as the Lebanese Prime Minister urged the global community to pressure Israel to allow rescuers to reach bombed sites.
Israel is now fighting both Palestine and Lebanon, which are part of the Iran-backed ‘Axis of Resistance’ group, in a war that started with the October 7 attack by Hamas and has now widened to a regional conflict.
The Palestinian Hamas group’s October 7, 2023 attack, called the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’, had targeted Israeli border towns, sparking a fierce West Asia showdown that continues till date. The Lebanese Hezbollah group – also backed by Iran-later entered the war in support of Hamas.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday said its allies won’t back down and defended his country’s missile strikes on Israel. In a rare public sermon, he asserted after leading the Friday prayers that Israel would “not last long”.
The Israeli Defence Forces, which has been conducting ground raids inside Lebanon, claimed in their latest update they have eliminated over 2,000 military targets and 250 Hezbollah operatives, including over a dozen commanders.
The Israeli Air Force has also been pounding Beirut and its suburbs with airstrikes over the past few weeks. Former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in one such strike a week, dealing a major blow to the Lebanese group.
Iran’s missile salvo on Israel on Tuesday marked a massive escalation in the West Asia war as Israel vowed to hit back stronger. It is feared that Israel may target oil and nuclear infrastructure in the country. Fears of oil supply disruptions have already sparked a rise in oil prices.
US President Joe Biden has advised Israel against striking oil facilities in Iran. But his predecessor Donald Trump, who is contesting November polls to return to the White House, has said that he believes Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to the missile barrage.