Minutes After Netanyahu's Warning, Israel Strikes Hezbollah Headquarters In Beirut

Beirut:  Shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's address at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the Israeli military reported conducting an airstrike on Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut. The strike caused a massive explosion that flattened buildings in a southern district of the city, sending thick clouds of orange and black smoke into the sky.  

While addressing the UN, Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire. Not long before the explosion, thousands were massed in the suburb for the funeral of three Hezbollah members, including a senior commander, killed in earlier strikes.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the strike. The Israeli army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said it targeted the main Hezbollah headquarters, located beneath residential buildings. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said four buildings were reduced to rubble in the blast, so powerful it rattled windows and shook houses some 30 kilometers north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen headed to the scene of the explosions, sirens wailing.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike killed a family of nine in a Lebanese border village, authorities said, as Lebanon struggled to deal with a rising death toll, a wave of tens of thousands fleeing their homes and the possibility of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon this week, saying it is determined to put an end to more than 11 months of Hezbollah fire into its territory. The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.

That has Lebanese fearing a repeat of the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in 2006, which lasted a month and caused heavy destruction over parts of their country. Or worse, they fear, Lebanon could suffer devastation on the scale caused in Gaza by Israel’s nearly yearlong campaign against Hamas.

At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes early Friday, Health Minister Firass Abiad said, bringing the death toll in Lebanon this week to more than 720. He said the dead included dozens of women and children.

The Israeli military announced it conducted dozens of airstrikes over a two-hour period on Friday, focusing on southern regions, including the cities of Sidon and Nabatiyeh. According to the military, the strikes targeted Hezbollah's rocket launchers and infrastructure. In response, Hezbollah reportedly launched a barrage of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.

The Israeli military announced it conducted dozens of airstrikes over a two-hour period on Friday, focusing on southern regions, including the cities of Sidon and Nabatiyeh. According to the military, the strikes targeted Hezbollah's rocket launchers and infrastructure. In response, Hezbollah reportedly launched a barrage of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.

Netanyahu's Warning At The UN

Netanyahu told world leaders at the UN that his nation will “continue degrading Hezbollah" until it achieves its goals along the Lebanon border, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire to halt the spiral into an all-out regional war. He said his government would no longer tolerate daily rocket fire from the area. “Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that's exactly what we're doing ... we'll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met," Netanyahu said.

“Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns ... How long would the American government tolerate that?" he said, shaking his fist in emphasis. “Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I've come here today to say: Enough is enough.” Netanyahu, armed with visual aids as he has been in the past, defended his nation's response to the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip. He said he travelled to the United Nations to refute the untruths he had heard from other leaders on the same rostrum earlier in the week.

“I didn't intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life," Netanyahu said. "But after I heard the lies and slanders levelled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.” He insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you.” He once again blamed Iran for being behind many of the problems in the region.

“For too long, the world has appeased Iran," Netanyahu said. “That appeasement must end.” Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza's Hamas government, doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.

Israel has maintained its military operations are justified and are necessary to defend itself. “This war can come to an end now. All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms and release all the hostages," Netanyahu said. "But if they don't – if they don't – we will fight until we achieve total victory. Total victory. There is no substitute for it. “ He said Israeli forces have destroyed “90%” of Hamas' rockets and killed or captured half of its forces.

(With inputs from AP)