Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah has announced it targeted three Israeli military bases — including Ramat David Air Base and Meron Base in northern Israel — using drones and rocket fire in retaliation for recent Israeli strikes on its positions in Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut; the group also said it fired rockets at a base in the occupied Golan Heights, marking a significant escalation in cross‑border hostilities amid the broader Middle East conflict.
This development comes after Lebanon’s government finally decided on an “immediate ban” of any Hezbollah’s military and security activity.
Israel continues to carry out successive air raids, particularly on Beirut’s southern suburbs and the south of the country, after issuing evacuation warnings to residents, while Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of around 29,000 people from areas hit by the strikes.
Israel announced Tuesday morning it had begun a new round of “simultaneous strikes in Tehran and Beirut”.
The Israeli military also said it had deployed troops to several locations in southern Lebanon in what it described as a “forward defence” measure along the border.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said he “authorized the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities”.
Lebanon was drawn into the regional war on Monday after an initial attack on Israel by Hezbollah, which said it wanted to “avenge” the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during the US-Israeli strikes.
Israel promptly launched large-scale strikes on Lebanon, where the government on Monday declared an immediate ban on Hezbollah’s military activities.
In separate statements, Hezbollah said it used attack drones to target both the Ramat David airbase and the Meron monitoring base in northern Israel.
It also said it targeted the Naffakh base, known as Camp Yitzhak, in the occupied Golan Heights with a rocket salvo.
These attacks came “in response to the criminal Israeli aggression on dozens of Lebanese cities and towns”, Hezbollah said.
Since the early morning hours, Beirut’s southern suburbs have been subjected to a series of airstrikes targeting several buildings after evacuation warnings.
AFP photographers saw huge plumes of smoke rising into the air and obscuring the sky.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV broadcaster said its Beirut headquarters had been targeted overnight and announced on Tuesday morning that Israel targeted the offices of Hezbollah’s Al-Nour radio broadcaster as well.
In a statement, Hezbollah condemned the strikes on “two civilian media outlets” saying they were aimed at “silencing the voice and image of the resistance”.
France24/AFP
