The US and Israeli war against Iran has expanded to Lebanon after the Iranian-backed Hizbullah militant group targeted Israel, which responded with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 52 people and injuring more than 150.
Israel and the US continued to pound Iran on Monday in a campaign that US president Donald Trump said was likely to take several weeks.
Tehran and its allies hit back against Israel, neighbouring Gulf states, and targets critical to the world’s production of oil and natural gas.
The intensity of the attacks and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.
READ MORE
Traditional safe havens in the Middle East like Dubai have seen incoming fire, while hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe. Oil and gas prices have shot up while US allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.
Hizbullah said its attack on Israel was in response to Israel’s assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, on Saturday morning, an action the militant group said “crossed a red line”.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with a wave of strikes throughout Lebanon, including in Beirut’s Dahiyeh quarter.
The attacks continued throughout the day. Huge traffic jams were reported as residents fled southern Lebanon and Beirut’s Dahiyeh quarter.
The Israeli air force and navy said dozens of Hizbullah targets and what were described as “Iranian regime command centres” were struck, including a weapons storage site in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon. Money exchange shops that Israel claimed were used by Hizbullah for money laundering were also hit.
The Hizbullah decision to attack Israel came despite intense pressure on the group from the Lebanese government, which wanted to avoid the country being dragged into another confrontation with Israel. A ceasefire in December 2024 ended a war between Israel and Hizbullah.
The Lebanese justice minister ordered the arrest of those responsible for firing the rockets and, after an emergency meeting of the government, prime minister Nawaf Salam announced a ban on Hizbullah’s military activity and restrictions limiting its operations to the political sphere in Lebanon.
“We declare that we reject any military or security action carried out from Lebanese territory outside the legitimate institutions,” he said. “What Hizbullah did constitutes a deviation from government decisions.”
Israel had warned of a powerful response if a second front was opened on its northern border, even threatening to strike Beirut’s international airport.
“The terrorist organisation will pay a heavy price for the shooting toward Israel, and Naim Qassem, who decided on the fire under Iranian pressure, is from now on a target for elimination,” said Israel’s defence minister Yisrael Katz, in a reference to the group’s secretary general.
“Whoever follows in Khameini’s path will find himself alongside him in the depths of hell with the rest of the eliminated members of the axis of evil.”
Katz said Israel would not return to the pre-October 7th – Gaza war – rules of engagement and would defend northern Israeli residents “with full force”.
Ori Gordin, commander of the IDF northern command, said there were no plans to evacuate communities along Israel’s border with Lebanon. When the war with Hizbullahbroke out following the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack from Gaza, when some 60,000 residents were evacuated under Hizbullah fire.
The IDF Arabic-language spokesperson urged residents who had evacuated their homes in south Lebanon not to return and residents from more 30 villages were ordered to leave immediately, in advance of impending IDF strikes. – Additional reporting Reuters
