An Israeli strike hit Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli for the first time early on Saturday, a Lebanese security source said, after more bombardment hit Beirut’s suburbs and Israeli troops sought to make new ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
The source told Reuters a Hamas official, his wife and two children were killed in the strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli. Hamas-affiliated media said the strike killed a leader of the group’s armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike on Tripoli, a Sunni-majority port city.
Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Fighting had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel’s year-old war in Gaza against Hamas.
Israel has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut’s once densely populated southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Overnight, a military spokesman issued three alerts for residents there to evacuate, and Reuters witnesses then heard at least one blast.
On Friday, Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the southern suburbs and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group.
Israel has eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on Sept. 27.
Lebanon’s government says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks. Strikes on medical teams and facilities, including the Lebanese Red Cross, Lebanese public hospitals and rescue workers affiliated to Hezbollah, have also increased.
Lebanon’s government says more than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, and the United Nations says most displacement shelters in the country are full. Many had gone north to Tripoli or to neighbouring Syria, but an Israeli strike on Friday closed the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on Lebanese civilians “totally unacceptable”.
IRAN DEFIANT, ISRAEL WEIGHS OPTIONS
Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Tuesday.
Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies, also backed by Tehran, in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday urged Israel to consider alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, told a huge crowd in Tehran that Iran and its regional allies would not back down.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Syria on Saturday for talks after a visit to Lebanon, in which he reiterated support for Lebanon and Hezbollah.
In Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, many buildings have been reduced to rubble. “We’re alive but don’t know for how long,” said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south.
On Friday, Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets into Israel, according to the Israeli military, and air raid sirens continued to sound in its north on Saturday.
The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by the Palestinian Hamas group’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s population.
GROUND OPERATIONS
The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken its total death toll down between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
Israel, which began ground operations targeting southern Lebanon this week, says they are focussed on villages near the border and has said Beirut “was not on the table”, but has not specified how long the ground incursion would last.
It says the operations aim to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments, which began on Oct. 8, 2023, forced them to evacuate from its north.
Iran’s missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East.
Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hashem Safieddine, rumoured to be Nasrallah’s successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut on Thursday night, but his fate was not clear.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted a photo of Safieddine and Nasrallah on X on Saturday and urged Khamenei to “take your proxies and leave Lebanon.”
Nations worldwide evacuate citizens from Lebanon
AUSTRALIA
Australia has organised hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave Lebanon, flying military aircraft to Cyprus in a contingency plan. Plans could include evacuation by sea, though authorities have urged an estimated 15,000 citizens in Lebanon to leave while Beirut airport remains open.
BELGIUM
Belgium’s foreign ministry has advised citizens to leave as soon as possible, the Belga news agency said.
BRAZIL
Brazil, which says 3,000 national want to be repatriated, has sent an Air Force Airbus A330 for those seeking to leave. The plane will fly 220 people out of Beirut on Friday and do two flights a week.
CHINA
More than 200 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated by the government, the official Xinhua news agency said.
CANADA
News from Canada suggests it will co-operate with Australia in evacuating nationals by sea, with the Toronto Star newspaper saying the plan involves contracting a commercial vessel to ferry out 1,000 each day.
CYPRUS
Cyprus evacuated 38 of its nationals on Thursday using an aircraft provided by Greece. Cypriots in Lebanon are estimated to number 1,000 to 1,500.
DENMARK
Denmark has urged citizens to leave as soon as possible but said it had not initiated an evacuation as there were still commercial flights out of Lebanon.
Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines, will add extra flights from Beirut to destinations in Europe to meet the demand for commercial travel outwards, the Danish foreign ministry said.
FRANCE
France has had contingency plans for months but has not yet ordered evacuation. Current plans centre on Cyprus and Beirut airport, while it is also discussing evacuations via Turkey. France has a warship in the region, with a helicopter carrier set to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean in coming days in preparation for any decision to evacuate foreign nationals from Lebanon.
GERMANY
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it was flying another 219 nationals out of Lebanon on Friday as it continues to evacuate non-essential staff, families of embassy workers and medically vulnerable nationals. It says it will support others trying to leave.
GREECE
Greece evacuated 22 of its nationals on Thursday, along with some Cypriot citizens. It has urged citizens to leave Lebanon and avoid any travel there, putting a frigate on standby in case assistance is required.
ITALY
Italy has cut diplomatic staff and beefed up security personnel at its Beirut embassy. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has repeatedly urged nationals to leave the country and sought assurances from Israel over the safety of Italian peacekeepers in the area.
JAPAN
Japan dispatched two C-2 military transport aircraft to Lebanon on Thursday. The airplanes are standing by for the evacuation of Japanese nationals. There are 40 to 50 Japanese citizens in Lebanon.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands will send a military plane to repatriate nationals from Lebanon via two flights on Friday and Saturday, the Dutch defence ministry has said, adding that the flights to the military airbase in Eindhoven will also accommodate people from other countries if there is enough room.
POLAND
A plane carrying several dozens of Poles and citizens of other countries who wanted to leave Lebanon landed in Warsaw on Friday. Poland earlier said it would limit staff numbers at its Beirut embassy.
PORTUGAL
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has advised against travel to Lebanon, which assisted in the evacuation of a small number of Portuguese citizens living there.
ROMANIA
Romania evacuated 69 citizens from Lebanon in a military aircraft on Thursday, its foreign and defence ministries said.
More than 1,100 Romanian citizens and their families registered their presence in Lebanon at the embassy, the foreign ministry said this week.
RUSSIA
Russia has started evacuating citizens from Lebanon, with families of its diplomats leaving on a special flight from Beirut on Thursday, its emergencies minister said. About 3,000 Russians and citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States want to leave, the TASS news agency said.
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia will send a military aircraft to fly Slovak and other citizens to Cyprus.
SOUTH KOREA
A South Korean military aircraft has evacuated 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon, the country’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
SPAIN
Spain said it planned to send two military aircraft to evacuate as many as 350 citizens from Lebanon.
TURKEY
Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was ready for possible evacuation of Turks from Lebanon via air and sea, and was working with about 20 countries for a possible evacuation of foreign nationals via Turkey. About 14,000 Turkish citizens were registered at the consulate in Lebanon, but the number was not definitive.
UNITED KINGDOM
Britain has chartered a limited number of flights for citizens to leave Lebanon, it said on Thursday, repeating advice to evacuate immediately. More than 150 British nationals and dependents left Beirut on a government-chartered flight on Wednesday.
Britain has moved about 700 troops to Cyprus, bolstering military assets, including two Royal Navy ships.
UNITED STATES
The United States has ordered dozens of troops deployed to Cyprus to help prepare for scenarios such as an evacuation of Americans from Lebanon. It is working with airlines to add flights out of Lebanon, with more seats for Americans, the State Department said on Tuesday.
