Israel has rained hundreds of missiles down on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, its military has said, with dramatic videos from the ground showing huge explosions as bombs slam into buildings.
Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets across the border, including long-range missiles for the first time in the escalating conflict, with the Israeli Prime Minister warning the group: ‘Whoever hurts us, we will hurt him more’.
In an indication that the region is sliding ever-closer to an all-out war, Benjamin Netanyahu added that his country faces ‘complicated days’ and called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign in Lebanon unfolded.
‘I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north – that is exactly what we are doing,’ he said in a message issued following a situational assessment with top brass at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s devastating strikes have so far killed 274 people and injured more than 1,000, Lebanese authorities have reported, with women, children and paramedics said to be among the dead.
Terrifying footage shows a huge explosion erupting, with people heard screaming in the background
A person films from a rooftop in Lebanon as airstrikes approach where they are standing
Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a video message following a meeting with top brass at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv
A huge blast is seen near a residential building in southern Lebanon
Huge columns of smoke rise in footage taken from a rooftop in Lebanon
A huge fireball erupts as the bombs drop nearby to where the person filming is standing
The person filming the attack drops to the ground for cover as the blasts approach
Smoke rises from Israeli shelling on villages in the Nabatiyeh district, seen from the southern town of Marjayoun
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre
Video shared by the IDF claims to show a strike on Hezbollah site, allegedly housing a DR-3 missile which was ready to be fired over the border
Israel is aiming to ‘broadly neutralise’ the threat posed by Lebanon’s long-range missiles, according to veteran analyst Ehud Ya’ari.
He told the country’s Channel 12 that the militant group – proscribed as terrorists by the UK, US and others – has built up an arsenal of long-range missiles over the past 18 years, adding that the air force ‘won’t be able to destroy every missile.’
The Israeli military said earlier that it had hit some 300 Hezbollah targets in a matter of hours, including a weapon which was identified as a Russian-made DR-3 missile, which they said was ready to be fired across the border.
Terrified residents in Beirut and elsewhere received calls and texts warning them to move away from Hezbollah targets, with Lebanon’s information minister condemning the alerts as a tactic of ‘psychological war implemented by the enemy’.
Lebanon’s prime minister has accused Israel of waging ‘a war of extermination’, and urged the United Nations to intervene ‘to deter the (Israeli) aggression’, as the Middle East teeters on the edge of all-out conflict.
Huge plumes of smoke have been seen at multiple sites deep into the country, with rockets fired at areas not previously hit by strikes and witnesses reporting intense bombing raids.
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.’
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’
A man picks up students after some schools closed early, in Beirut, Lebanon
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Burj Qallawiyah
A huge plume of smoke rises over buildings in Tyre, southern Lebanon, following an Israeli strike
People walk at a beach as smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes
Smoke rises over buildings in southern Lebanon amid the wave of airstrikes
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.’
Lebanon’s PM Najib Mikati denounced Israel’s ‘destructive plan’ at a cabinet meeting this morning.
‘The continuing Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word and a destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns,’ he said.
He urged ‘the United Nations and the General Assembly and influential countries… to deter the (Israeli) aggression’.
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre
Smoke billows from the site of Israeli airstrikes that targeted Lebanese villages, as seen from Marjaayoun, southern Lebanon
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Aramti, near the Lebanon-Israel border, on September 23, 2024
The country’s health ministry has reported that 100 people have so far been killed in the strikes, while 400 have been injured, including women, children and paramedics.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said that people in the capital were receiving Israeli phone warnings from ‘the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate where they are.’
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an earlier statement 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 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’.
