Israel keeps bombing Lebanon, with Hezbollah and civilian deaths rising, as Netanyahu shifts tone on cease-fire
First responders raced through the devastated streets of southern Lebanon, doing all they could for the wounded, including injured children. One small boy hurt in Israel's latest airstrikes raised three fingers as he was carried away on a stretcher, after being asked his age.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon and that it has destroyed dozens of the Iran-backed group's rocket launchers and other weapons. On Friday afternoon, the Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" on Hezbollah's "central headquarters," which it said had been "intentionally built under residential buildings" in Beirut. There was no immediate confirmation of casualties in that strike.
Many of Israel's airstrikes have hit residential areas, where Israel says Hezbollah has positioned its weapons. Though Israel says it has warned people to evacuate those areas, the strikes have killed civilians — including children.
Hezbollah says Israel has killed about 30 of its militants in strikes over the last week, but Lebanon's ministry of health says more than 700 people have been killed, including at least 50 children. The Reuters news agency reported Friday that another strike, overnight in southern Lebanon, killed nine members of the same family, including four children.
More than 100,000 people have also been internally displaced in Lebanon since Israel started launching successive waves of airstrikes more than a week ago, according to a registry maintained by the Lebanese government. Lebanese officials say the real number is likely over half a million.
The United Nations said Friday that around 30,000 people, mainly Syrian nationals, had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the past 72 hours.
The Israeli military said Friday that it had carried out dozens more strikes in southern Lebanon, hitting a Hezbollah launcher. Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tiberias, which the Israel Defense Forces said were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
Houthi rebels in Yemen, meanwhile, said they had also fired a missile at Israel overnight, which Israel said was intercepted. The Houthis, like Hezbollah, are backed by Iran and say they're launching attacks on Israel and its interests in support of Palestinians amid Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip with Hamas.
Netanyahu's office seeks to "clarify" stance on cease-fire
The latest crossfire over Israel's northern border with Lebanon came against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Friday. His remarks were highly anticipated given contradictory messaging from his office about an Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire proposal being pushed by the U.S. and France.
In his address, Netanyahu said Israel would no longer tolerate daily rocket fire into northern Israel from Hezbollah.
"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely," Netanyahu said, "and that's exactly what we're doing... we'll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met."
Ahead of his address, Netanahu's office sought, with a social media post, to "clarify a few points" about Israel's position on the cease-fire proposal, which the U.S. and France say has wide international backing.
"Israel shares the aims of the U.S.-led initiative of enabling people along our northern border to return safely and securely to their homes," Netanyahu's office said in the statement.
It said teams had met "to discuss the U.S. initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes. We will continue those discussions in the coming days."
The prime minister's remarks to "clarify" his stance came hours after his office issued a statement on Thursday saying: "This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to."
That statement added a dismissal of a separate report suggesting Netanyahu had told his military to "moderate" its assault on Hezbollah to give space for discussion about a cease-fire — a report his office called "the opposite of the truth."
"The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force," it said.