Middle East battle explodes as Israel drops bombs inside Lebanon

Israeli jets have launched airstrikes in Lebanon after their military said Hezbollah was preparing to fire rockets and missiles towards Israel. 

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said: ‘In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the (Israeli military) is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians.

Hagari warned Hezbollah would ‘soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and’ drones into Israel. 

Sirens began sounding in northern Israel soon after the warning, and additional sirens later joined in across the north.

Lebanese media reported strikes in the country’s south without immediately providing more details. Social media footage showed what appeared to be strikes in southern Lebanon.

Hagari warned Hezbollah would ‘soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and’ drones into Israel

Fears have been high in recent weeks that the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip could escalate into a regional conflict

Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv began diverting incoming flights and delaying others due to takeoff Sunday after the Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

Israeli media cited the Israel Airports Authority for the news. Flight-tracking data showed at least two El Al flights swinging far south and diverting after the announcement.

In his statement, Hagari added: ‘We can see that Hezbollah is preparing to launch an extensive attack on Israel, while endangering the Lebanese civilians.

‘We warn the civilians located in the areas where Hezbollah is operating to move out of harm’s way immediately for their own safety’. Hagari didn’t provide additional details on the intelligence he cited. 

While the IDF X page added: ‘Hezbollah has just launched over 150 projectiles from Lebanon toward Israeli territory. We target terrorist infrastructure, they target civilians.’

Fears have been high in recent weeks that the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip could escalate into a regional conflict after an Israeli strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander and a suspected Israeli assassination operation in Iran killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Haniyeh, who had escaped the horrors of the war in Gaza while residing in Qatar, travelled to Iran to attend the inauguration of new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this month. 

Lebanese media reported strikes in the country’s south without immediately providing more details

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on August 23, 2024

Hours from death: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Ismail Haniyeh (L) before Israel’s lethal strike on the Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran July 30, 2024

But Israel appeared to seize the chance to hit Haniyeh, attacking his residence in Tehran in the early hours of the morning and killing the Hamas leader along with a security guard.

The assassination, confirmed by both Hamas and Iranian authorities, marks the most high-profile killing since October 7.

While Hezbollah chief Fuad Shukr was wiped out by an Israeli airstrike after being lured toward the top of a building in Beirut. 

Shukr, who was responsible for the 1983 massacre of 241 American and 58 French troops in a Beirut bombing, was killed on July 30, along with his wife, two other women, and two children. 80 people were also injured in the strike, which was attributed to the IDF. 

The Wall Street Journal revealed that Shukr received a call from someone who told him to go from the second floor of the building he was in to his apartment on the seventh floor. 

This photo taken on Aug. 23, 2024 shows the smoke caused by an Israeli shelling in Khiam, Lebanon

Hezbollah fighters gather prior to the funeral procession for late senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, killed in an Israeli strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, earlier this month

A phone call lured Hezbollah chief Fuad Shukr (pictured) towards the top of the Beirut building he was in minutes before he was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike last month

A Hezbollah official told the newspaper that he was easier to target on the higher floor. 

The official added that the call likely came from someone who had breached the terror group’s communications network, adding that Israeli intelligence had likely beaten its counter surveillance measures through better technology and hacking capabilities. 

Shukr, long known as the ‘Ghost’ because of how rarely he was seen in public, is believed to have first gone into hiding after he helped plan the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight from Athens to the US.