Israeli warplanes have pounded the south and east of Lebanon at the same time as locals have been warned to move away from Hezbollah targets, with the region sliding closer to all-out war.
Lebanese official media announced that ‘enemy warplanes have been launched’ early this morning, later adding that at least one civilian had been killed.
Huge plumes of smoke have been pictured at multiple sites deep into the country, with rockets fired at areas not previously hit by strikes and witnesses reporting intense bombing raids.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said that people in the capital Beirut were receiving Israeli phone warnings telling them to evacuate.
‘Citizens in Beirut and a number of areas are receiving landline telephone warning messages whose source is the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate where they are,’ the NNA said.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said their aircraft struck 150 targets this morning, amid reports that they were working to disrupt ‘major rocket attacks’ on Israel.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant confirmed that the IDF was ‘deepening’ attacks in Lebanon and suggested that the situation would intensify, warning in a video message: ‘These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure.’
Smoke rises from Israeli shelling on villages in the Nabatiyeh district, seen from the southern town of Marjayoun
A Lebanese man checks a message received on his mobile phone in Beirut on September 23, 2024, calling people to evacuate the areas ‘where Hezbollah hides its weapons’
People walk at a beach as smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Aramti, near the Lebanon-Israel border, on September 23, 2024
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre
Gallant further revealed on X this morning that he has provided his US counterpart with a ‘situation assessment of Hezbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.’
He added that the wider regional security situation and ‘threats posed by Iran and its proxies’ were also discussed.
The IDF issued a warning to residents of villages in southern Lebanon: ‘If you are in or near a building that Hezbollah uses to store weapons or weapons, you must evacuate this building and move away from it immediately.
‘Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives or the organization’s weapons puts themselves in danger.’
The NNA reported that there had been ‘more than 80 air strikes in half an hour’, targeting south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district. It also reported strikes in the Tyre area.
At the same time, the NNA reported ‘intense raids in the Bekaa’ Valley in the east, deep inside Lebanon near the Syrian border, including in the vicinity of Baalbek and the outskirts of Hermel.
The NNA said the strikes in the east killed a ‘civilian’, a shepherd, ‘and wounded two members of his family’ and four others.
A Hezbollah source, requesting anonymity, said strikes in the Bekaa Valley targeted the area from east to west.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that ‘we advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety’.
Smoke billows from the site of Israeli airstrikes that targeted Lebanese villages, as seen from Marjaayoun, southern Lebanon
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Kfar Rouman village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Marjayoun, near the Lebanon-Israel border
Hagari told a media briefing Israel’s military ‘will engage in (more) extensive and precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon’.
Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Hagari said ‘we will do whatever is needed’ in order to return evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes safely, a war priority for the Israeli government.
He said that Hezbollah over the years has stashed weapons, including cruise missiles, in houses and buildings throughout southern Lebanon, and called on residents to stay away from these sites.
He presented in a media briefing an aerial video of what he described as Hezbollah operatives trying to launch cruise missiles from a civilian house in Lebanon, and the subsequent Israeli strike moments before it was launched.
‘Hezbollah is endangering you. Endangering you and your families,’ Hagari said.
An Israeli jet flies, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, September 23, 2024
A row of cars is seen outside Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport this morning as people were reportedly told to evacuate
Hezbollah has traded near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered the Gaza war.
Violence has spiked dramatically in recent days, and Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire over the weekend, raising fears of all-out war.
When asked whether a ground invasion of southern Lebanon could be imminent, a senior Israeli military official said that the IDF is ‘currently focusing on Israel’s aerial campaign only’.
Laying out Israel’s aims in the campaign against Hezbollah, the official told journalists that it wants to degrade the militants’ ability to fire rockets over the border as it has done for 11 months.
They reportedly added that it hopes to push Hezbollah fighters back from the border and destroy the group’s infrastructure which the official said would be used to attack ‘Israeli communities in the north, to massacre, murder, and kidnap Israeli civilians’.