An Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday killed a Hezbollah commander who was a leading figure in its rocket division, two security sources in Lebanon said, as fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East mounted.

The sources identified the commander who was killed as Ibrahim Qubaisi. The attack, in which six people were killed, dealt another blow to the Iran-backed group which has faced a series of setbacks at the hands of Israel over the past week.

The relentless pressure on Hezbollah has increased fears that nearly a year of conflict will explode into another all-out war and destabilise the Middle East, where a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah’s ally Hamas is already raging in Gaza.

Israel struck the Hezbollah-controlled area of the Lebanese capital for a second consecutive day after mounting a new wave of airstrikes on targets in Lebanon.

After nearly 12 months of war against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

The health ministry gave an initial toll of six dead and 15 wounded in the Beirut strike.

The Israeli military carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah on Monday which Lebanese authorities said killed more than 500 people.

The airstrike hit a building in the usually busy Ghobeiry neighbourhood in Beirut. One of the security sources shared a photo showing damage to the top floor of a five-storey building.

Israel’s military chief said earlier that attacks on Hezbollah would be accelerated.

“The situation requires continued, intense action in all arenas,” said Military Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi after holding a security assessment.

Lebanese authorities said 558 people had been killed, including 50 children and 94 women, in Israel’s airstrikes on Monday. A further 1,835 were wounded, they said, and tens of thousands more have fled for safety.

The casualty tolls and the charge from the most powerful and advanced military in the Middle East has spread panic in Lebanon, which suffered from devastating destruction when Israel and Hezbollah fought in 2006.

“We are waiting for victory, God willing, because as long as we have a neighbour like Israel, we can’t sleep safely,” said Beirut resident Hassan Omar.

Afif Ibrahim, a taxi driver from southern Lebanon, was defiant.

“They (Israel) want us (Lebanese) to kneel, but we kneel only to God in our prayers; we bow our heads to no one but God,” he said.

GROWING CALLS FOR DIPLOMACY

Calls for diplomacy are growing as the conflict worsens, with UN human rights chief Volker Turk urging all states and actors with influence to avert further escalation in Lebanon.

“I believe that we can still find a path forward to get de-escalation between Israel and across that northern border between Israel and Lebanon and bring about a diplomatic solution that allows people to return to their home,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told MSNBC.

The fighting has raised fears that the United States, Israel’s close ally, and regional power Iran, which has proxies across the Middle East – Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq – will be sucked into a wider war.

Hezbollah last week suffered heavy losses when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded in the worst security breach in its history.

The operation was widely attributed to Israel, which has a long history of sophisticated attacks on foreign soil. It has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

Israel’s intelligence and technological prowess has given it a strong edge in both Lebanon and Gaza. It has tracked down and assassinated top Hezbollah commanders and Hamas leaders.

But Hezbollah has proven resilient during decades of hostilities with Israel, challenging superior firepower.

The group, which was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to counter an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, is a more formidable enemy than Hamas.

Hezbollah used a new rocket, Fadi 3, in an attack on an Israeli army base, the group announced in a message posted on Telegram on Tuesday.

Its media office said on Tuesday that Israel was dropping leaflets with a “very dangerous” barcode on them onto Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, warning that scanning it by phone would “withdraw all information” from any device.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Hezbollah’s media office did not say if anything else was written on the flyers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

1. On Saturday night, Hezbollah fired at least 10 missiles into northern towns and cities of Israel’s Jezreel Valley, the Times of Israel reported. This was the deepest incursion by Hezbollah rockets into Israeli territory since the conflict began in early October. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted most of the missiles, but one man in his 60s suffered minor injuries from shrapnel.
2. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the missile barrage and stated that it had aimed at the Ramat David Airbase. Located 50 km from the Lebanon border, the airbase is a key strategic site for the Israeli Air Force. 
3. In response, Israeli jets carried out a series of retaliatory strikes across southern Lebanon. The IDF reported that its airstrikes targeted at least 110 Hezbollah positions, including rocket launchers and operational facilities. The IDF claims it successfully disrupted Hezbollah’s preparations for further rocket launches.
4. The IDF stated that their Saturday afternoon air raids hit approximately 290 Hezbollah sites, including thousands of rocket launcher barrels, as part of their strategy to dismantle Hezbollah’s rocket-firing capabilities. These preemptive strikes were launched to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch large-scale attacks on Israeli territory.
5. The intensification of Israeli airstrikes follows Hezbollah’s earlier attack on Israeli military targets, including seven positions in northern Israel and the Golan Heights. Israel’s military reported that Hezbollah had fired about 90 rockets at Israeli forces during these engagements.
6. In addition to military targets, Israel conducted an airstrike on southern Beirut, killing senior Hezbollah commanders. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the strike left 37 people dead. Among those killed were three children and seven women. Hezbollah confirmed that Ibrahim Aqil, the head of its elite Radwan Force, and other high-ranking commanders were among the dead. 
7. Following the loss of its commanders, Hezbollah vowed retaliation. Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi, another high-ranking Hezbollah commander, was also killed in the same Israeli strike. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the attack, calling it an act of war, and promised retribution against Israel.
8. The United Nations has expressed concern over the situation, calling for “maximum restraint” from all parties. Germany and other nations have urged an immediate de-escalation. International mediators, particularly from the United States, are working to prevent the Israel-Hezbollah conflict from spiralling into a regional war.
9. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of the country’s war objectives, including the return of northern Israeli residents, who have been forced to evacuate due to Hezbollah’s attacks. Netanyahu said the military’s focus was on dismantling Hezbollah’s ability to pose a threat to Israel’s northern borders, stating that the country’s actions speak for themselves.
10. Amid the heightened conflict, the US State Department has issued an advisory for American citizens in Lebanon, urging them to leave the country while commercial flights are still available. The US raised its travel advisory for Lebanon in July following another Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Beirut:

The death count from an Israeli air strike targeting Hezbollah military commanders in Beirut’s southern suburbs has risen to 37 dead, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Saturday.

“The number of dead has risen to 37 people,” a ministry statement said, adding that rubble was still being removed from the site of Friday afternoon’s strike.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket barrage of its own.

The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war which began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said around 100 of its fighter jets had struck more than 270 targets, “90 percent” of which “were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel”.

Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation “was completed and accomplished”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were “not the final word” in the campaign against Hezbollah.

A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat and two more wounded, the military said, with an official telling AFP their boat may have been hit by one of their own side’s air-defence interceptors.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in what Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.

But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July, blamed on Israel, killed Iran-aligned leaders including the Hamas political chief and a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, which prompted vows of revenge.

Britain and Jordan were among those to appeal on Sunday for an end to the escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also called for the UN Security Council to take “deterrent” and “effective” measures against Netanyahu and his ministers who “kill all chances of achieving peace”.

Homes damaged

Hezbollah said its operatives launched “a large number of drones” and “more than 320” Katyusha rockets targeting “enemy positions” across the border.

The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah named the “main target” as the Glilot military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which Israeli media reported is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.

Israel’s military said there were “no hits” on the base.

A secondary target, said Nasrallah, was Ein Shemer, a military airport used by Israeli drones.

He also appeared to suggest Hezbollah’s retaliation for Shukr’s killing was over, saying “if the result is satisfactory” then its response “has been accomplished”.

An AFP photographer in Acre, an Israeli city 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border, reported damage to three homes from a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel smashing windows and destroying a bed.

“There were explosions in the area of Haifa,” said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. “I was stopped and was told not to go to the beach.”

AFPTV footage from early Sunday showed dozens of interceptor rockets being launched into dense clouds above the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.

An AFP photographer saw a Hezbollah drone exploding into a huge fireball as it was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.

Hezbollah announced two of its fighters had been killed, while its ally the Amal movement also reported the death of a member. No casualties were immediately reported in Israel.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel “was aware” of six operativess “killed in the strikes”.

Another military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah’s strikes were “part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning”.

The fighting disrupted air travel in Israel and Lebanon, with both British Airways and Air France among those suspending flights to Tel Aviv.

‘Stop the escalation’

Yemen’s Huthi rebels, one of several Iran-backed groups that have been drawn into the Gaza war’s periphery, hailed the Hezbollah attack and declared that their own retaliation was “definitely coming”.

The fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has killed hundreds, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told an emergency cabinet meeting he was in contact with “Lebanon’s friends to stop the escalation”.

General Charles Brown, the most senior officer in the US military, arrived in Israel on Sunday evening to meet his Israeli counterpart Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military said.

The United States is Israel’s top military supplier.

A US defence official said Washington had helped track the Hezbollah barrage although it was not involved in shooting down any drones or rockets or in the strikes on Lebanon.

The Flightradar24 tracking website on Sunday afternoon showed a US Navy surveillance drone had been flying over nearby Mediterranean waters.

Gaza talks

Hamas hailed Hezbollah’s Sunday attack as “a slap in the face” for Israel, and the Palestinian movement on Sunday night said it fired a rocket toward Tel Aviv.

Israel’s military said it landed in an “open area” south of the city.

In the leadup to Sunday’s major exchange, Western and Arab diplomats had sought to head off regional retaliation, stressing the urgency of reaching a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose officials have been mediating Gaza truce talks for months alongside the US and Qatar, “warned of the dangers of a new front opening in Lebanon” and called for progress in the talks to enable a “path to calm and stability in the region” his office said.

A Hamas official said on Sunday the group’s delegation had left the Egyptian capital after meeting with mediators.

In Gaza, witnesses said battles raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, in the territory’s central region.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian Hamas operatives in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Sunday’s strikes in Lebanon were “not the final word” in his country’s military campaign against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

“We are striking Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows… This is another step towards changing the situation in the north and safely returning our residents to their homes. And, I repeat, this is not the final word,” Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting.

He said the military destroyed thousands of “short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our civilians and forces in the Galilee”.

“Additionally, the IDF (Israeli military) intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel,” he said, without identifying what the target was.

Israeli media however reported the target Hezbollah aimed to strike was the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)