Israel is attacking the Lebanese capital city of Beirut this evening after Hezbollah reportedly took credit for rocket fire against the Israeli city of Haifa. Israeli warplanes have also hit multiple other sites across southern and eastern Lebanon today, including the Bekaa Valley and the Nabatieh District.
Details about the extent of the damage in Beirut are still emerging, but media reported the strikes centered on the Dahiyeh suburb, the Shi’ite-dominated suburb in Beirut’s south. There have yet to be casualty figures out of Dahiyeh.
There were, however, reports earlier in the day that as many as 10 people had been killed in Lebanon by the other Israeli strikes. Dozens were also reported wounded in those strikes, and reportedly, Hezbollah had confirmed they’d lost eight members to the strikes.
Aftermath of strikes in Dahiyeh | image from X
Hezbollah was accused of firing three rockets at Israel earlier in the day, though apparently to no effect, with one intercepted and the other two being allowed to land in open areas. There similarly were no reported casualties from the Haifa attack.
Hezbollah was said to have presented the rocket attacks both as revenge for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and as a “warning” for Israel to withdraw its military from Lebanese territory. Israel has had troops inside Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire was reached, and has refused to withdraw since then.
These attacks mark the first time Hezbollah has retaliated against Israel in well over a year, as while Israel often accuses Hezbollah of violations of the ceasefire by their very existence, this is the first cross-border rocket fire from Hezbollah since the ceasefire went into effect.
Israel, by contrast, has attacked Lebanon on a virtually daily basis in recent months, and indeed when strikes were reported earlier this weekend it wasn’t clear if they were strictly related to the ongoing Iran War or were just part of the persistent Israeli escalation ongoing anyhow.
Later Sunday into Monday, however, it’s clear that the escalation is broader than usual, and is at least tangentially related to Hezbollah rocket fire.
