JERUSALEM/BEIRUT – Israel struck more targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing Hezbollah with new attacks after killing the Iran-backed group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a string of its other top commanders in an escalating military campaign.
The attacks have dealt a stunning succession of blows to Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fire, killing much of its leadership and revealing gaping security holes. Israel’s defense minister is now discussing widening the offensive.
Following the death of Nasrallah — killed in a massive airstrike in Beirut on Friday — Hezbollah launched new fusillades of rockets into Israel, while Iran said his death would be avenged.
Israel’s intensifying bombardment has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
Nasrallah had not only made Hezbollah into a powerful domestic force in Lebanon during his 32 years as leader, but helped turn it into the linchpin of Iran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Nasrallah’s body was recovered intact from the site of Friday’s strike, a medical source and a security source told Reuters on Sunday. Hezbollah has not yet said when his funeral will be held.
Supporters of the group and other Lebanese who hailed its role fighting Israel, which occupied south Lebanon for years, mourned him on Sunday.
“We lost the leader who gave us all the strength and faith that we, this small country that we love, could turn it into a paradise,” said Lebanese Christian woman Sophia Blanche Rouillard, carrying a black flag to work in Beirut.
The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, their latest round of warfare in four decades of on-off conflict, has been waged in parallel with Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas since the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s attack on Israel last Oct. 7.
Israel’s stated goal is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow thousands of displaced residents to return, but its strikes have also had a devastating impact on civilians in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said a million people — a fifth of the population — had fled their homes.
In Beirut, some displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront. On Sunday morning, families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and made tea for themselves.
“You won’t be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however much you bomb, however much you displace people — we will stay here. We won’t leave. This is our country and we’re staying,” said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area.
The U.N. World Food Programme said it had launched an emergency operation to provide food for those affected by the conflict.
MILITARY ACTION
On Sunday Israel’s military said the air force had struck dozens of targets including launchers and weapons stores while its navy said it had intercepted eight projectiles coming from the direction of Lebanon and one from the Red Sea.
Drones could be heard flying over all parts of the Lebanese capital overnight and throughout the day on Sunday.
Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.
Israeli airstrikes across Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border, and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, have meanwhile killed a string of the group’s other most senior commanders.
On Sunday Israel said it had killed Nabil Kaouk, a prominent Hezbollah leader. Hezbollah confirmed his death.
ESCALATION RISKS
Concerns have grown about the prospect of a wider conflict. Israel has mobilized reserve brigades and says it is ready for all options, including a ground operation.
Hezbollah has said it will cease fire only when Israel’s offensive in Gaza ends. Hamas and other Hezbollah allies issued statements mourning his death.
Diplomatic efforts have shown little sign of progress. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that efforts for a ceasefire were still underway.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday “It’s time for a ceasefire” when asked about the possibility of an Israeli ground offensive, but he also praised the killing of Nasrallah as a measure of justice for victims of Hezbollah attacks.
In Iran, which helped create Hezbollah in the early 1980s, senior figures mourned the death of a senior Revolutionary Guards member killed alongside Nasrallah, and Tehran called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, sources told Reuters.
Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah’s Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.
However, Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s killing had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”. Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing it of dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts.
