By Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry and Emily Rose
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A fresh wave of air raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs in the early hours of Saturday as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Iran-backed movement’s command centre that apparently targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 separate airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
Heavy strikes shook southern Beirut on Friday too. There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate. But a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable, and the Lebanese armed group had not made a statement.
Israel has not so far said it aimed to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said senior Hezbollah commanders were targeted.
“I think it’s too early to say… Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive, and Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters Tehran was checking his status.
The latest barrage came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday that his country had a right to continue the campaign.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” he said.
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern while supporters in the gallery cheered. He later cut short his trip to New York to return to Israel.
Friday’s attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on Beirut during nearly a year of warfare with Hezbollah, marked a sharp escalation of a conflict that has seen a daily missile and rocket fire between the two sides.
Lebanese health authorities confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in the initial attack on Friday – the fourth on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest since a 2006 war.
But the final toll appeared likely to be much higher. There was no word on casualties from the later strikes. More than 700 people had been killed in strikes over the past week, authorities said.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the target was an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
Al-Manar’s live feed showed search and rescue teams scrambling over concrete and protruding metal, with a correspondent for the TV station saying the attack left several large craters and damaged many surrounding buildings.
Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.
Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of the Laylaki neighbourhood which was identified by the IDF as one of those that would be struck, told Reuters that he was fleeing with his wife and three children.
“We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood,” he said. The family grabbed clothes, their identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.
“We’re going to the mountains. We’ll see how to spend the night – and tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”
This week’s escalation has displaced around 100,000 people in Lebanon, increasing the total number of people uprooted in the country by the conflict to well over 200,000.
Israel’s government has declared returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes as a war aim.
ESCALATION
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel’s air defence systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.
The latest escalation has sharply increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, as well as the United States.
Iran, which said the attack crossed “red lines”, accused Israel of using U.S.-made “bunker-busting” bombs in Friday’s strike, which was much more powerful than other recent attacks.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States had not been informed of the strike beforehand and President Joe Biden was being informed of developments.
At the United Nations, where the annual General Assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of concern including by France, which with the U.S. has proposed a 21-day ceasefire.
“This must be brought to an end immediately,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.
At a New York press conference, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict…. We will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course.”
Hezbollah opened the latest bout in a decades-long conflict by launching a missile barrage against Israel immediately following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza last year.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Timour Azhari in Beirut; Jana Choukeir and Nadine Awadalla in Dubai, Phil Stewart in Washington, Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing By Cynthia Osterman)
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