Hezbollah said it had launched a series of rocket attacks into northern Israel, plunging it into a “endless battle of decision” with Israel amid global calls for both sides to step back from the brink of all-out war.
In a major escalation of the conflict, Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense bombing raids in nearly a year across southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah responded with its most intense rocket attack since the start of the Gaza war.
In response to the attack, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Lebanon risked “turning into another Gaza.”
“A never-ending battle of the final straw has begun,” Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Sunday at the funeral of the top commander, who was killed along with 44 others in an Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern outskirts on Friday. “No threats can stop us,” he said. “We are ready to face all military possibilities.”
As Israeli warplanes bombed border villages and more than 100,000 residents fled north, politicians in Beirut called for de-escalation to avoid war. Authorities said four people were killed and nine wounded over the weekend. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also continued to make harsh rhetoric.
“Over the past few days we have dealt Hezbollah a series of blows they never imagined. If Hezbollah did not get the message, I promise you that they will,” he said.
“No country can tolerate the firing on its own people and cities, and neither can we, the State of Israel… We will do whatever is necessary to restore security.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said early Sunday that hundreds of rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, some of which landed near the northern city of Haifa. The army said the rockets were fired “into civilian areas,” suggesting that the barrage so far had been aimed mainly at military targets but that it could intensify.
Six people were reported injured.
“It cannot be emphasized enough that the region is on the brink of imminent catastrophe and that there is no military solution that can make either side safe,” Janine Hennis-Plusschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement on X.
She reported that the Israeli Ministry of Health has asked hospitals in northern Israel to move their operations to facilities specially protected from rocket and missile attacks, and that Rambam Hospital in Haifa will move its patients to a safe underground facility, the ministry said.
Dr. Noam Yehudai, from Tsafon Medical Center, said staff were preparing evacuation centers to receive patients. “We are discharging patients whose health conditions allow for safe discharge to their homes and have suspended all elective surgeries until further notice, while emergency and oncology surgeries are continuing as scheduled,” he said.
Sarah Kipelwas, from Crayot, said: “We heard a big explosion at around 6:30 a.m., we saw flames from our balcony and then we heard that someone had been injured. I’m 68 years old and have lived in this neighborhood all my life. This is the fourth time in my life that my town has been attacked. I think this time it will be harder than the previous ones. Hezbollah has been lurking there for almost a year, trying to make our lives impossible, but we are ready to fight and put an end to it.”
“No one in the world will stand by and watch if our enemies continue to bomb us.”
A week of relentless attacks has made the conflict impossible to ignore in Lebanon. An Israeli attack in Beirut on Friday targeted Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Akil and killed three children and seven women, Lebanese officials said.
His assassination follows a series of attacks earlier this week in which explosions of walkie-talkies and pagers commonly used by Hezbollah members killed 42 people and injured more than 3,000. Israel is believed to have been involved in the attacks but has not officially claimed responsibility.
The sudden and brutal attack shattered any sense of safety Lebanese people had felt. “For the first time we felt that war was all around us and that we were no longer safe. We don’t know where the next Israeli attack is going to be. We avoid gatherings and unknown places,” said Amal Sherif, a 52-year-old activist who lives in central Beirut.
Fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah runs parallel to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes on Sunday hit a school in west Gaza City that was housing hundreds of displaced people, killing seven people, Palestinian health officials said.
Eleven months into the war, the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 41,000, most of whom are civilians, amounting to about 2 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population, or one in 50 people, according to Gaza health officials. The conflict began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and about 250 taken hostage.
Countries around the world called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend, and White House national security spokesman John Kirby said escalating conflict was not in Israel’s best interest.
Washington had conveyed this “directly to the Israeli side” and “we believe there is time and space for a diplomatic solution and we are working on it,” he told ABC.
The EU called for an “urgent ceasefire” and “robust new diplomatic mediation efforts”, a message echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who noted a “worrying escalation of tensions”.
Speaking at the Labour party’s annual conference, Lamy said the ceasefire would “facilitate a political solution that will enable Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live lives in peace and security.”
But Guterres said the language used by both sides showed a lack of willingness to seek peace. “It’s clear that neither side is interested in a ceasefire. This is a tragedy, because this is a war that has to stop,” Guterres told CNN.