At least 3,526 killed in Lebanon since the war began, more than 1 million displaced, and Iran has fired its first direct missile attack on Israel since the April ceasefire following an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed 2 and wounded 20.
Kehinde Adegoke | International Agencies
Iran fired missiles at Israel on Sunday in its first direct attack since the April ceasefire, dramatically escalating tensions after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Tehran warned that further retaliation was imminent, as a conflict that has already claimed more than 3,500 lives in Lebanon and displaced over one million people showed fresh signs of spiralling into a wider regional war.
Tehran had warned of retaliation after Israel, on Sunday, struck Beirut’s southern suburbs in defiance of Washington’s request days ago to stand down.
The strike on a residential building killed two people and wounded 20, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Iran’s parliament speaker previously hinted at retaliation, saying: The (U.S) naval blockade imposed against the Iranian people, together with Washington’s green light today to the Zionist regime, makes U.S. and Israeli bases and assets in the region legitimate targets.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strike was in retaliation for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group firing at northern Israel earlier Sunday, and that Israel targeted ‘command centres.’
There was no immediate White House comment. A senior U.S. official said: “We were not surprised” by the attack in Beirut. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, would not say if the U.S. had been given a heads-up on the strike.
Netanyahu wants to remove Hezbollah as a threat.
‘We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run,’ Netanyahu told his Cabinet. Israel’s military said ‘steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians’, including aerial surveillance.
Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for firing at Israel earlier in the day.
Israel on Monday announced it would strike the southern suburbs after Hezbollah claimed attacks in northern Israel, but urgent talks via Washington halted the attacks on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns. Lebanon and Israel later renewed a ceasefire agreement in talks that Beirut hopes will end the fighting.
The first such agreement took effect on April 17, days after a 10-minute Israeli bombardment of Beirut killed over 300 people. Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs twice following that deal. Israeli strikes over southern Lebanon continue daily, and Israeli forces have seized around a fifth of Lebanon in a ground invasion.
Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he believes Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Trump wants the attack on Hezbollah to be `more surgical’
Hezbollah has scathingly rejected the U.S.-brokered deal and urged Lebanon to end its direct talks with Israel. Instead, it backs Iran’s inclusion of a ceasefire in Lebanon as a condition in negotiations with the U.S.
The fighting threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas and related products like fertiliser. Its closure has jolted the world economy and spiked warnings of hunger in vulnerable regions.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview taped Friday and aired Sunday with NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ said that ‘I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical.’
Trump added that he is ‘not demanding’ that Lebanon be part of the short-term deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began attacking Iran. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 31 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, went to Pakistan on Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief, who has been involved in mediating talks between the U.S. and Iran. The Lebanese army did not say whether the visit is related to those mediation efforts.
