Israel launches fresh strikes on Beirut as Iran’s leader vows Hezbollah and Hamas won’t back down

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Louise Thomas

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Israel has claimed to have targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut as it carried out strikes against the militant group’s leadership – with Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowing that Tehran and its proxies will not back down.

The air attack on Beirut, part of a wide assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese residents from their homes, is reported to have targeted the potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah who was assassinated by Israel a week ago.

Hashem Safieddine’s fate is unclear, and neither Israel nor Hezbollah has offered any comment. Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday afternoon that the military was still assessing the damage caused by the airstrikes in southern Beirut. He added that the army had “eliminated” approximately 250 Hezbollah operatives, including four battalion commanders and nine company commanders.

Earlier, the Israeli military reported that it had killed the head of Hezbollah’s communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi. It declined to comment on the report that Safieddine had been targeted.

In what was a rare public appearance, in front of a huge crowd in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iran and the Tehran-backed militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas would not be cowed by Israel. His pledge came two days after Tehran raised the stakes by firing missiles at Israel, after Israel sent ground forces into Lebanon earlier this week.

“The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” the ayatollah said while leading Friday prayers in the Iranian capital, mentioning Nasrallah in his speech and describing Iran’s attack on Israel as legal and legitimate.

Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel, he said, grasping the barrel of a rifle that stood to his left. He did not issue a direct new threat to Israel or the United States.

US President Joe Biden suggested on Thursday that Israel’s response to Iran’s missile salvo, which it fended off, could include a strike on Iranian oil facilities. His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices as traders considered potential disruption to the oil supply. The semi-official Iranian news agency SNN quoted Revolutionary Guard deputy commander Ali Fadavi as saying on Friday that if Israel were to attack, Tehran would in turn target Israeli energy and gas installations.

Hezbollah made no comment on the fate of Sakafi or of Safieddine, whose brother Sayyed Abdallah Safieddine – Hezbollah’s representative in Iran – attended the ayatollah’s speech in Tehran.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that assassinations would just spur more attacks. “Every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity,” he said.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, visiting Beirut, said his presence in the city on Friday “in these difficult circumstances” was the best evidence that Iran stands by Lebanon and Hezbollah. Mr Araghchi said Tehran supports efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon, on the condition that it is backed by Hezbollah and takes place simultaneously with a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah and Israel started trading near-daily cross-border fire in the wake of Israel launching its war in Gaza in retaliation for the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault in Gaza has killed at least 41,800 people, according to the latest update from the health ministry in Gaza, and has led to more than 90 per cent of the territory’s population being displaced.

Iran’s allies in its so-called “axis of resistance” – Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen’s Houthis, and armed groups in Iraq – have carried out attacks in the region in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. Ayatollah Khamenei said Afghanistan should join the “defence”.

Israel’s military announced on Friday that two of its soldiers from the Golani Brigade had been killed in combat, and two others severely wounded. Israeli media reported that the two soldiers were killed in a drone attack launched from Iraq in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Other strikes carried out by Israel on Lebanon cut off the main border crossing with Syria on Friday, where tens of thousands have crossed since Israel stepped up its airstrikes in the last two weeks. The Israeli military says Hezbollah uses the crossing to bring weapons into Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have said that trucks are checked and that the crossing is crucial for humanitarian purposes.

People were seen picking their way around the four-metre-wide crater left by the strike on Friday, carrying suitcases and gallons of fuel as they attempted to cross into Syria.

Aid workers in Beirut told The Independent that the humanitarian crisis was “devastating” and that the number of displaced was virtually “unprecedented” for a country battered by years of conflict and financial ruin.

“There are no words for it. Over the last two weeks, the scale of the displacement has been massive. People are sleeping on the street near the beach, they don’t have any place to go,” said Sana Basim, head of the programme at Islamic Relief Lebanon.

She said Lebanese civilians were now fleeing into Syria, despite Lebanon having for years hosted hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

“Many are unable to move, now no place is safe,” she added. “We must stop this violence now.”

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said. UN officials said most of Lebanon’s nearly 900 shelters were full.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report