Attacks on Lebanon force Israelis into shelters as UN warns of ‘catastrophe’

Hundreds of thousands of people sought shelter from Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, the military said, while a UN official warned of an imminent regional “catastrophe” due to the worsening violence.

Israel has signaled its intention to shift its focus to Iran-backed Hezbollah following nearly a year of cross-border shelling since the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Further exchanges of fire broke out after military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said late Saturday evening that dozens of Israeli warplanes were launching “wide-scale” attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which says it supports ally Hamas, suffered a major blow this week, analysts said. Deadly attacks targeted its communications systems and decimated the leadership of its elite unit, although its fighting capacity was not destroyed, analysts said.

The head of Hezbollah's elite unit, Ibrahim Aqil, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Friday. A large crowd is expected at his funeral in Beirut on Sunday.

“As the region stands on the brink of imminent disaster, it cannot be stressed enough: there is NO military solution that would make either side safer,” said United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on the social media platform X.

The death toll from Friday's attack on a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut rose again on Sunday, reaching 45, the Health Ministry said.

The Israeli army said more than 100 missiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have had to seek refuge in air raid shelters across northern Israel,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told AFP.

The military said it had launched attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to the rocket fire in order, Shoshani said, to “prevent a larger-scale attack.”

Israel's emergency services said at least four people suffered “shrapnel injuries,” three of them near the city of Haifa.

– Exit Warnings –

Following the rocket attack, the Israeli Civil Defense ordered the closure of all schools in the north of the country.

“It reminds me of October 7, when everyone stayed at home,” Haifa resident Patrice Wolff told AFP, referring to the day of the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said on Sunday that one person was killed and another injured in an “Israeli attack” near the border.

Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli arms production facilities and an air force base in the Haifa area in response to communications equipment explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed 39 people and injured nearly 3,000.

“As a first response” to the pager and radio explosions, for which it blamed Israel, Hezbollah bombarded “the Rafael military-industrial complexes” in northern Israel with “dozens” of rockets, the group said.

The U.S. State Department urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while trade opportunities remain. Jordan on Sunday urged its citizens to do the same.

An Israeli military statement on Saturday said Israeli warplanes had hit “thousands” of ready-to-fire rocket launchers from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had attacked at least seven military positions in northern Israel and the annexed Golan Heights with rockets.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said three children and seven women were killed in Friday's attack on an underground meeting hall in a southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel said the “targeted attack” killed Aqil, the commander of the Radwan Force, and several other commanders.

The elite Radwan Force led Hezbollah's ground operations, and Israel repeatedly called for Hezbollah fighters to be pushed back from the border.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that the attack on the communications device was an “unprecedented” blow and threatened Israel – which has not commented on the explosions – with retaliation.

– “The goals are clear” –

In the months-long, almost daily clashes, hundreds of people were killed in Lebanon, mostly fighters, and dozens in Israel and the annexed Golan Heights. Tens of thousands of people on both sides were forced to flee their homes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday an expansion of the country's war aims, which now includes the return of the residents of northern Israel.

On Saturday he told X: “Our goals are clear and our actions speak for themselves.”

International mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been trying for months to reach a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip. Diplomats have repeatedly said this would help calm regional tensions.

An Iraqi coalition of pro-Iranian armed groups claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Israel on Sunday. The military said it intercepted “several suspicious air targets” from Iraq during the night without causing any casualties.

Critics of Netanyahu in Israel accused him of dragging out the war. Thousands gathered again in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening and demanded a solution for the release of the prisoners still held in Gaza.

The October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war left 1,205 Israelis dead, most of them civilians, according to a count by AFP news agency based on official Israeli figures and including hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages also kidnapped by militants, 97 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 41,391 people have died in Israel's military retaliation offensive in Gaza, most of them civilians. This is according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area. The UN has recognized the figures as reliable.

In the occupied West Bank, Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said Israeli forces had stormed its office in Ramallah to enforce a court-ordered 45-day closure after a ban had previously prevented the news channel from broadcasting programs from Israel.

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