BEIRUT: Israel pounded southern Lebanon on Saturday, raising fears of all-out war a day after an Israeli strike on Beirut left senior Hezbollah commanders among the 37 people Leba­nese officials said were killed.

With heavy equipment still working at the site of the southern Beirut strike beneath high-rise buildings, Lebanon’s health ministry reported six additional dead, up from 31 earlier on Saturday.

TV footage showed mourners gathering in the Lebanese capital for the funerals of three slain Hezbollah members.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati decried “horrific massacres” and said he had cancelled his trip to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, “in light of the developments linked to the Israeli aggression”.

PM Najib Mikati cancels trip to UN General Assembly after attacks

Germany’s foreign ministry said there was “an urgent need” to defuse tensions, as the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip threatens to engulf Lebanon too. The UN has also voiced concern about “heightened escalation” and called for “maximum restraint” from all sides.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but that the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader brought justice to the Iran-backed group.

Israeli aircraft “struck thousands” of rocket launchers ready to fire from southern Lebanon, as well as “approximately 180” other, unspecified targets, a military statement said. Eyewitness reported intense Israeli strikes over a wide area of southern Lebanon including parts of the Nabatiyeh district and Jezzine further north.

Basement bombed

Hezbollah said it targeted at least seven military positions in northern Israel and the annexed Golan Heights with rockets. Israel’s military said the militants had fired “about 90” rockets by late afternoon on Saturday.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said three children and seven women were killed in Friday’s strike on an underground meeting room, which eyewitness said left a huge crater in a densely populated neighbourhood of the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel was “not aiming for a broad escalation in the region”. The months of near-daily exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon, mostly fighters, and in the annexed Golan Heights, forcing tens of thousands on both sides to flee their homes.

Israel said the strike killed the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, and several other commanders.

Hezbollah said a second senior commander, Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi, was also killed on Friday. It was the second Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s military leadership since the Gaza conflict began.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s “enemies” would find no refuge. Iran accused Israel of seeking to “broaden the geography of the war”, and Hamas called the Beirut strike an “escalation”.

On Friday the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council the attack on Hezbollah communications devices violated international law and could constitute a war crime.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024