Beirut, Lebanon-Israel began bombing Lebanese branches of an association accused of financing the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Lebanese state media reported late Sunday, a further escalation of Israel’s nearly month-long war against the militants.
The National News Agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, many of them targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Other strikes hit the association in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and in the country’s south, NNA added.
It also reported that a strike had landed near Beirut’s airport, the main entry-point of humanitarian assistance to the country and a major evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.
AFP footage showed large plumes of smoke rising close to the facility.
Soon after, Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone Sunday, without saying where. The Iran-backed group also said it had fired several rocket salvos at Israeli troops across the border.
The strikes came after Israel said it had hit dozens of targets during air raids on Lebanon earlier Sunday, as Hezbollah claimed numerous rocket strikes over the border and clashes with Israeli ground troops.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said the Israeli army had “deliberately” damaged one of their positions, the latest incident reported by the force.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops Sunday that the military was stepping up strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, destroying places the group “planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel”.
The military warned it was about to attack offices of US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan, calling on residents to move away from its facilities. Strikes began shortly after, according to NNA.
They mark an expansion of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, as it seeks to degrade the group’s ability to fund operations, having already killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders.
Israel turned its focus north towards Hezbollah last month.
Full-scale war erupted after a year of exchanges over the border as Hezbollah fired rockets in what it called support for Hamas Palestinian militants at war with Israel in Gaza since October 7 last year.
Silent streets
In southern Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, said an Israeli “army bulldozer deliberately had demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position”.
Four days earlier, European Union nations with troops in the thousands-strong mission had agreed to “exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel” to prevent further “incidents” against UNIFIL.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said Israel has “no intention” of harming the peacekeepers.
Earlier Sunday the Israeli military said it hit the “command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” and underground weapons facility in south Beirut.
On Saturday night the military had similarly reported striking weapons stores and a “Hezbollah intelligence headquarters” in the area.
Just a month ago, south Beirut’s bustling streets were packed with traffic, families strolling about and youths in cafes. Now silence dominates the abandoned Hezbollah bastion.
About 70 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel Sunday within a matter of minutes, the military said, adding it had intercepted some of them.
The NNA later reported 14 Israeli strikes in the space of 15 minutes on a single border village, Khiam.
The Lebanese army, which is not fighting in the war, said three of its soldiers had been killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in southern Lebanon.