Israeli jets have continued attacking targets across Lebanon, including the capital, Beirut, for a seventh day, with Lebanese officials saying the nonstop bombardment had left up to a million people in the streets.
As fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah grow, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday the intense Israeli attacks had possibly caused the “worst displacement crisis” in the country’s history.
Earlier, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah targets, including rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities, and carried out dozens of air raids across Lebanon.
At least 11 people were killed in an air raid on a house in the town of Ain in the Bekaa Valley in the northeast, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon, said a civil defence centre was hit in a small town just outside the Tyre governorate, killing four people and injuring several others.
Overall, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military announced the killing of senior Hezbollah official Nabil Kaouk, a day after the group confirmed the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an attack on Friday on a densely populated civilian area of southern Beirut. Hezbollah also confirmed Kaouk’s killing on Sunday.
Mikati said the only option to end the conflict was a diplomatic solution. “There’s no choice for us but diplomacy.”
The killing of several top Hezbollah commanders in recent weeks has dealt a huge blow to the group engaged in cross-border fighting with Israel since last October. The Iran-backed group has set a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as a condition to stop the attacks it began in solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged and bombarded territory, where nearly a year of Israeli attacks has killed more than 41,500 people.
On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the killing of Revolutionary Guards Deputy Commander Abbas Nilforoushan alongside the Hezbollah chief “will not go unanswered.”
“This horrible crime of the aggressor Zionist regime will not go unanswered, and the diplomatic apparatus will also use all its political, diplomatic, legal and international capacities to pursue the criminals and their supporters,” he said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
The killing of Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than 30 years and built the Lebanese group into a powerful force, is one of the heaviest blows ever dealt by Israel to Hezbollah.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said Hezbollah is at a turning point “both at an organisational level and at the popular level”.
“There is no doubt that Hassan Nasrallah was considered arguably the most powerful man in Lebanon even though he did not hold public office,” she said.
“Hezbollah needs to prove that its command and control structure is intact, that its leadership is still able to function.”
An Israeli invasion of Lebanon?
Israel has hinted at launching a ground incursion into Lebanon with army chief Herzi Halevi saying on Saturday that Israeli troops were prepared for what was to come and Lebanese residents were told to flee to safety.
Speaking for the first time since the assassination of Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there are now two war goals for northern Israel bordering Lebanon.
The first is to return evacuated Israelis back to those towns and settlements in the north. The second is to restore the balance of power on the northern border, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported.
“Israeli officials were saying all day on Saturday that they are determined to destroy Hezbollah and destroy all of its military capabilities. The Israeli army chief of staff, along with Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have approved new plans for offensive strategies in the north,” Salhut said.
“This comes amid fears of a looming ground invasion into southern Lebanon – something that is causing a lot of fear on both sides of the border.”
Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden said on Saturday that it was time for a ceasefire.
Asked by reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, Biden responded: “It’s time for a ceasefire.”
Asked if the US would respond to missile attacks on its warships in the Red Sea, Biden said: “We’re responding.”
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said Biden’s statement raised several questions.
“When he says he’s for a ceasefire, does he mean a complete ceasefire? Does he accept what Hezbollah has long said – that if Israel stops the destruction of Gaza, then residents of northern Israel can return to their homes? Or is he accepting the argument from Israel that the only way to de-escalate is to escalate? Reportedly, there are proponents of that strategy in the administration,” Rattansi said.
“We have heard that the administration is against an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon but then consistently we have heard the administration say that it’s against actions that Israel subsequently does.”
On Friday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed attacks on the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, as well as three US Navy warships, with missiles and drones.
The Houthis have repeatedly fired at Israel and have carried out numerous attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait since November in what they describe as a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack in Gaza.
