The fighting has led more than 250,000 Syrians and 82,000 Lebanese to flee north to Syria in the past two weeks.
An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said on Saturday.
Hamas said in a statement that the strike on the Beddawi refugee camp struck the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali’s wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima — whom the statement described as children — were also killed in the attack.
Meanwhile, overnight on Friday, the Israeli military (IDF) carried out another series of air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah’s central intelligence headquarters around midnight. It did not say who it was aiming for or if any militants were killed in that strike but it claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 10 consecutive strikes in the area.
Hezbollah launched around 100 rockets into Israel on Friday, the Israel military said.
Israel began a ground incursion on Tuesday into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israeli ground offensive
Israel forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border.
Israel has vowed to put an end to Hezbollah fire into northern Israel, after nearly a year of exchanges between the two sides that drove tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border.
Israeli Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters on Friday that the ground operations were limited, aimed at rooting out Hezbollah militants and making the border safe for northern residents of Israel to return to their homes.
“First of all, our mission is to make sure they’re [Hezbollah] not there,” Shoshani said.
“Afterwards we will talk about how we make sure they don’t come back.”
Iran warns Israel
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was in Beirut on Friday to meet Lebanese officials, warned that if Israel carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran would retaliate more powerfully than it did this week when it launched at least 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.
The missile barrage amid a series of rapidly escalating attacks has threatened to push the Middle East closer to a regional war.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Araghchi said.
Israel strikes main road from Lebanon to Syria
Another Israeli airstrike on Friday cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.
The airstrike rendered the road unusable for cars, leaving people to go on foot to the Masnaa Border Crossing where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria in the past two weeks.
Israel said it targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border.
Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry through Syria from Iran, its main backer.
US strikes on Yemen
And the US military struck several Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, going after weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iranian-backed rebels.
US aircraft and ships struck Houthi strongholds, according to an unnamed American official.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeidah, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sanaa, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province.
The strikes come just days after the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel after they apparently shot down a US military drone flying over Yemen.