Israeli forces launched an attack on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut on Friday, leveling several buildings in a series of missile strikes.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sep. 27 that it conducted the strikes against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital. It remains unclear if Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in the strike.
“Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization that served as the epicenter of Hezbollah’s terror,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.
“After almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets, missiles, and suicide drones at Israeli civilians, after almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is ... taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely.”
“Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” Netanyahu said.
“And that’s exactly what we’re doing ... we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met.”
It was not immediately clear how many casualties resulted from the operation. The IDF said that there was no change to its defensive guidelines.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border in the time since.
Israel has moved in the past week to escalate its efforts to eliminate Hezbollah’s most senior leadership and, on Sep. 24, carried out its deadliest strike in Lebanon since a month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006.
Netanyahu has called on Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas near the border or those that could be targeted due to Hezbollah’s presence.
Hezbollah, like Hamas in Gaza, locates its facilities within civilian infrastructure, which makes targeting them difficult without also killing noncombatants.
The strikes also closely followed funerals in Lebanon attended by thousands, which marked the passing of three Hezbollah members, including the group’s drone unit chief.
Hagari said that the main Hezbollah headquarters had been located beneath residential buildings.
It is unclear at this time whether residents of those buildings received the type of prior warning Israel often gives to residents in Gaza.
Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation for such an eventuality.
Netanyahu’s comments at the United Nations have dampened hopes for a U.S.-backed call for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has not responded to the proposal.
Netanyahu has vowed to dismantle Hamas’s military and political regime in Gaza, but in Lebanon, has thus far restrained Israeli military objectives to pushing Hezbollah away from the border and putting an end to the daily rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
The IDF said it carried out dozens of other strikes in southern Lebanon on Sept. 27, including in the cities of Sidon and Nabatieh. It said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure.
Israel says its accelerated strikes this week have inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s weapons capabilities and killed a number of its top commanders.
Hussein Fadlallah, head of Hezbollah in Beirut, said in a speech that the group has an endless supply of fighters and will continue fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
“There is no place for neutrality in this battle,” he said.
President Joe Biden told reporters outside Air Force One that the United States had not received any prior notification and had no knowledge of the IDF strike ahead of time.
Speaking to reporters late on Friday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a wider conflict in Lebanon would have “profound consequences” in the Middle East for years to come.
Israel’s objective in Lebanon, he said, should remain focused on securing the border for all who live there and not on a wider conflict against Hezbollah.
“The events of the past week, and of the past few hours, underscore what a precarious moment this is for the Middle East and for the world,” Blinken said.
“We have to have conditions on the ground such that people can have confidence that they can be safe in their own homes.”
He said the United States remained committed to deterring the conflict in Lebanon from widening to a larger war that would likely only result in further civilian casualties in Lebanon.
“It’s clearly in the interest of the Lebanese people to have peace, to have security, to have stability, and not live under threat. And [it is] certainly in their interest to avoid a wider war where, inevitably, the biggest victims of such a war ... are the Lebanese people,” he said.
To that end, Blinken underscored Israel’s right to defend itself but said that the embattled nation should ensure it does so with greater regard for the future of the region.
“Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism,” he said. “The way it does so matters.”
