Smoke rises from the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Dahieh neighborhood on Oct. 16, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (Carl Court, Getty Images via TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Israel’s air force struck targets in Beirut for the first time in almost a week, and the U.S. warned it could cut arms supplies if the humanitarian crisis in Gaza doesn’t improve.
The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted the strike early Wednesday on an underground weapons-storage site in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The airstrike came just hours after Lebanon’s prime minister said the U.S. had assured him that Israeli attacks on the capital would ease.
The Beirut attack followed airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon that killed 14 people overnight, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Earlier, the Israeli military said it intercepted around 50 projectiles launched by Hezbollah.
The events underline the high tensions after days of heavy exchanges. According to the U.N.’s refugee agency, Israel has now told people in a quarter of Lebanon’s territory to move, with 1.2 million people displaced by the conflict.
Even more — around 1.9 million — have been displaced in Gaza by the war with Hamas, another Iran-backed militant group. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to Israeli ministers on Oct. 13 to warn them that the U.S. may have to limit flows of weapons to Israel if it doesn’t allow more aid into the besieged Palestinian territory within 30 days.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Hamas in Gaza in recent days, and 65 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave.
Hezbollah and Hamas, whose deadly raids into Israel last year triggered the war in Gaza, are considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah after a year of cross-border skirmishes with the group, which has been firing rockets and missiles into Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
At least 1,600 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel started its air campaign nearly a month ago, according to health officials there.
Iran diplomacy
Iran, the main backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah, is on a diplomatic push to gather regional support as it braces for Israel’s response to its firing of 200 ballistic missiles at the country on Oct. 1.
Israel and the U.S. have been conferring regularly on how to retaliate, a dilemma that’s jangled nerves across the Middle East and in energy markets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country is free to act as it chooses in a counter-strike, while the U.S. is urging it to avoid nuclear and energy facilities.
The Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “emphasized the need for collective action by the countries of the region” to stop Israel and prevent the expansion of the war in a meeting with his Jordanian counterpart in Amman on Wednesday, according to a ministry statement. He also plans to visit Egypt and Turkey.
Jordan helped to thwart Iran’s last missile and drone barrage against Israel, shooting down several projectiles that flew over its territory in April.
With assistance from Dana Khraiche and Dan Williams.
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