Key Points
- Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks.
- It has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel.
An Israeli strike hit Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli for the first time early on Saturday, a Lebanese security source said, after more bombardment hit Beirut's suburbs and Israeli troops sought to make new ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
The source told Reuters a Hamas official, his wife and two children were killed in the strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli. Hamas-affiliated media said the strike killed a leader of the group's armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike on Tripoli, a Sunni-majority port city.
Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Lebanon's Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Fighting had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel's year-old war in Gaza against Hamas.
Israel has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut's once densely populated southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Overnight, a military spokesman issued three alerts for residents there to evacuate, and Reuters witnesses then heard at least one blast.
In a rare address on Friday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country's missile strike on its foe.
His address in Tehran followed Iran's second-ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.
Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel where about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, Khamenei defended the Palestinian group's "logical and legal" actions and hailed its "fierce defence" against Israeli forces.
The unprecedented Hamas attack triggered global condemnation but also supporting fire from Iran-backed groups around the Middle East, mainly Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.
At least 41,615 Palestinians have been killed and 96,359 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, which Iran had carried out in response to Israel's military action in Lebanon.
The air attack on Beirut, part of a wider assault, was reported to have targeted the potential successor to the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel a week ago.
Hashem Safieddine's fate was unclear and neither Israel nor Hezbollah have offered any comment.
Warnings of fresh strikes
A blast was heard and smoke was seen over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, as the Israeli military issued three alerts for residents of the area to immediately evacuate.
Iran’s Supreme Leader has pledged continued support for regional allies fighting Israel, defending Iran’s 1st of October missile strike on Israeli military targets. Credit: AAP
In a statement early on Saturday, Hezbollah also said the Israeli army was trying to infiltrate the Lebanese southern town of Odaisseh and that clashes there were ongoing.
Clashes along the border
Hezbollah on Friday said it clashed again with Israeli troops on the Lebanese border.
The Israeli military said some 70 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Friday evening and were either intercepted or fell into open land.
Israel sent ground forces into Lebanon this week after the Iranian missile attacks. It has said its ground operations are "localised" in villages near the border, but has not specified how far into Lebanon they would advance or how long they would last.
Israel says the operations aim to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments that forced them to evacuate from its north.
Nearly a year into the Gaza war, Israel has shifted its focus north, aiming to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by cross-border Hezbollah rocket attacks to return home.
Israel's military launched an intensified wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon, killing more than 1,110 people since 23 September, and driving more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.
The attacks have killed an Iranian general, a host of Hezbollah commanders and, in the biggest blow to the group in decades, assassinated its leader, Nasrallah.
UN says civilian toll 'totally unacceptable'
The government in Lebanon says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on civilians "totally unacceptable".
The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed.
It has not broken down the overall figure between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
US military strikes 15 Houthi targets in Yemen
The US military said it carried out 15 strikes on Friday against targets linked to Iran-aligned Houthi fighters in Yemen, where residents reported blasts at military outposts and even an airport.
Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, said the targets were tied to Houthi offensive military capabilities, but did not detail whether that included missile, drone or radar capabilities.
The Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November and say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
Masnaa border crossing closed
In Lebanon, Israeli bombardment has put at least four hospitals out of service, and on Friday a first delivery of medical aid organised by the United Nations reached Beirut airport.
Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Friday near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.
Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre-wide crater.
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
Lebanon's disaster management unit said more than 374,000 people — most of them refugees from Syria's war — crossed back into the relative safety of their home country in the final week of September.
