Israeli warplanes pound southern Lebanon as war fears escalate

• Israeli air raids on southern Lebanon escalate attacks on Hezbollah, with preparations for a broader offensive.
• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan called for de-escalation but praised the death of Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
• Israel's military also targeted a school in Gaza, killing 21 people, including 13 children.

Israeli warplanes launched powerful air raids across much of southern Lebanon, escalating attacks on Hezbollah militants as Israel’s military signalled it was preparing for a broader offensive.

“We have been striking extensively in southern Lebanon,” Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said late on Saturday, asking residents in northern Israel to stay vigilant and restrict any gatherings. “Rockets may be launched into Israeli territory soon.”

In Nahariyya in the north, fighter jets roared as they streaked across the border on Saturday night. Sirens had sounded throughout the region all day as firefighters battled blazes ignited by Hezbollah rockets.

The bombardment in Lebanon came as rescue workers in Beirut were still pulling bodies from the rubble from an Israeli airstrike Friday afternoon. The attack, in a southern suburb, killed 37 people, including at least two senior Hezbollah commanders, one of whom served as the group’s chief of operations.

Ibrahim Aqil was also wanted by US authorities for his role in the deadly bombings of the US embassy and marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. In a briefing on Saturday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan called for de-escalation, but also said Aqil’s death was a “good outcome”.

Sparks fly at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar on Saturday. Photo / AFP

Speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Sullivan said Aqil “has American blood on his hands … he is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice”.

Sullivan said there was an “acute” risk of escalation on the Israel-Lebanon border, where for months the sides have fought a low-level war, with Hezbollah launching the first attacks in solidarity with Hamas militants in Gaza. Since then, the United States has sought to broker a deal that would restore calm, but Hezbollah has said it won’t negotiate until Israel ends the Gaza war.

Tensions soared this week in Lebanon, however, when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded over two days, killing or maiming many of the group’s operatives, as well as civilians who were close to the blasts. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the explosions, declaring the attacks “an act of war”.

A photo taken in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. Photo / AFP

US officials have acknowledged Israel was behind the attacks, but said the Israelis did not inform the United States about the specifics and told Washington only afterwards through intelligence channels.

In Israel’s Upper Galilee region, roads were deserted in areas residents had evacuated, while Israeli surveillance drones buzzed overhead. However, in some communities, daily life largely continued. In Shlomi near the border, resident Shelley Liss Barkan has been cooking meals for soldiers throughout the conflict, and said an influx of troops over the past week has increased demand.

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces said brigade commanders were touring the north “as part of the preparations for expansion of operations”.

What’s happening now is an “escalation and widening of the war,” said Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. Previously, said Mizrahi, who served in the IDF for 26 years, both sides were engaged in a “war of attrition”.

But as Israel ramps up attacks, it risks drawing Iran and its allied militant groups into the conflict. On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a group of Muslim clerics and scholars Israel was “targeting ordinary people” in the region, and Islamic countries should cut off economic and political ties.

Nasruddin Amer, a spokesman for the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen, said the movement would “stand with Hezbollah and support and aid them” in the face of Israeli attacks, but could not “specify the exact type of response”.

Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding around 800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel. Photo / AFP

The Houthis - who have launched drones and missiles at Israel - are “with whatever options Hezbollah determines,” Amer said in an interview.

In the Beirut suburb where Friday’s strike took place, residents said they feared the attack by Israel signalled the beginning of a new phase of the conflict. The strike collapsed a residential building where Israel said the Hezbollah commanders were meeting and severely damaged another one, sending rubble and debris onto the streets of the packed neighbourhood.

“Even though the entire building is destroyed and probably no one is left alive, we need to be careful,” said Ali Harakeh, a municipality council member working at the site. Lebanon’s health ministry said three children - aged 4, 6 and 10 - were among those killed.

Neighbours said many of the bodies recovered on Saturday were unrecognisable.

“People are afraid this could become normal. We have seen what they did in Gaza - the same could happen here,” said Ali Dahr, who works in real estate and said Hezbollah members live with their families in the neighbourhood.

But even as Israel’s attention shifted to the north, it continued to wage war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military on Saturday targeted a school sheltering displaced people near Gaza City, killing 21 people, including 13 children and six women, according to Gaza’s civil defence force. The IDF described the operation as a “precise strike on terrorists” and said “numerous steps” were taken to mitigate risk to civilians.

At least three Gaza health ministry employees were also killed by Israeli fire in the enclave’s south, according to Marwan Hams, a senior health official. He said the workers were killed as they attempted to retrieve medical supplies from a warehouse. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.