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Israel’s military said it hit Hizbollah’s “main command centre” in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday during the most intense bombardment of Lebanon’s capital since the start of its offensive.
The strikes on Beirut came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a defiant speech at the UN that Israel “must defeat” the Lebanese militant group despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire.
The Israeli army said it had struck Hizbollah’s headquarters, which was located under residential buildings. A person familiar with the situation said Israel had hit the command centre “thinking [Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah] may be there”.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, quoted security sources as saying Nasrallah was in a “safe place and what is published in the Hebrew media is not true”.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Friday evening condemned the strikes and accused the US of “complicity” for which it should be held accountable.
Nasser Kanaani, the ministry’s spokesperson, said any calls by the US and other western powers for a ceasefire only served “to buy time for the Zionist regime to continue its crimes”.
He added the Islamic republic would continue its support for Lebanon and its “resistance”.
US President Joe Biden said Washington “had no knowledge of or participation in the [Israel Defense Forces] action”. “We’re gathering information,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned about the conflict escalating in the region, he added: “I’m always concerned about that.”
Residents of Beirut reported hearing powerful blasts that shook the city, with large clouds of dust and smoke seen rising. At least two people were killed and 76 more injured in the strikes, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. That figure was expected to rise as rescue workers were digging through the rubble searching for survivors.
Six buildings were reduced to rubble in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of southern Beirut, said Lebanon’s state-run news agency. Hizbollah controls the area, which is home to many of the group’s offices, including those belong to its social welfare institutions, but it is also a densely populated urban centre.
Such a large-scale attack on Beirut targeting Nasrallah risks triggering a robust response from Hizbollah and Iran, which considers the Lebanese movement as its most important proxy.
Nasrallah’s role in the so-called axis of resistance of Iranian-backed militant groups has grown in significance since the US assassinated Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful commander, in 2020.
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon called the strike a “dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game”, and would “bring its perpetrator appropriate punishment”.
The strikes came less than two hours after Netanyahu’s speech to the UN general assembly, during which he made no mention of a US-French effort to broker a ceasefire with Hizbollah, doubled down on the campaign against Hamas in Gaza, warned Iran that Israel could hit it anywhere, and branded the UN a “swamp of antisemitic bile”.
He later cut short his visit to New York and was set to fly back to Israel on Friday evening, according to his office, underlining the potential significance of the events unfolding in Lebanon. It is rare for an Israeli prime minister to travel on a Sabbath.
“As long as Hizbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to our homes safely — and that is exactly what we’re doing,” he said.
Netanyahu’s address, which was met with walkouts from some other delegations and cheers from his supporters, came after the US and France proposed a 21-day truce in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the hostilities from spiralling into all-out war.
US officials hope a truce would allow time to negotiate a more durable ceasefire, and would also put pressure on Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept the terms of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza.
But during his half-hour speech — twice the time allotted to speakers — Netanyahu pledged to keep up the pressure on Hizbollah, and insisted Israel would also continue its offensive in Gaza until Hamas had been destroyed and the Israeli hostages held there had been freed.
“This war can come to an end now,” he said. “All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms and release all the hostages. But if they don’t, we will fight until we achieve total victory. Total victory.”
Both speakers who took to the podium before Netanyahu on Friday — the prime ministers of Slovenia and Pakistan — condemned the soaring human toll of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,000 people according to Palestinian officials, and called for an end to the fighting.
Netanyahu dismissed the criticisms, saying Israel had no choice in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack, during which militants killed 1,200 people, and took another 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber
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