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Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday morning, stepping up its bombardment as the army warned civilians to evacuate and said it would continue to target sites where it believed Hizbollah was storing weapons.
The string of strikes, which sent towers of smoke and fire rising across the hills of southern Lebanon, followed US warnings to Israel against taking steps that could result in an all-out war with the Lebanese militant group.
“We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hizbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way,” said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
“The Israel Defense Forces will engage in extensive, precise strikes, against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon,” Hagari said.
The Israeli raids marked some of the heaviest bombardment of Hizbollah-dominated areas of southern Lebanon since the two began exchanging cross-border fire after the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7. The escalation has stoked fears that a full-blown land war could be imminent, and the US on Sunday issued a stark warning to Israel against escalating the second front in the north.
Asked about the possibility of a land incursion into southern Lebanon, Hagari said Israel would continue to “do whatever is needed” to prevent Hizbollah from being able to strike northern Israel and allow local residents to return to their homes.
He said the IDF had focused its strikes on Monday morning on houses concealing Hizbollah weapons. The military shared a video showing the IDF striking a building that appeared to be an ordinary home in southern Lebanon. The IDF said Hizbollah had concealed a cruise missile in the building that was ready to launch.
Sirens sounded several times overnight in northern Israel but the Hizbollah fire was more muted than the previous night, when the militant group launched about 150 rockets against Israel, with most intercepted but some landing in the suburbs of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa.
Hizbollah said Sunday’s barrages were an “initial” response to the mass detonations of its communications devices that killed 37 people and injured more than 3,000 across Lebanon. Hizbollah has blamed the device explosions on Israel, which has not directly confirmed or denied responsibility.
John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesperson, warned Israel on Sunday that there were “better ways” to ensure Israeli citizens could return to evacuated homes in the north “than a war, than an escalation, then opening up a second front”.
“We don’t believe that a military conflict, and we’re saying this directly to our Israeli counterparts . . . we don’t believe that escalating this military conflict is in their best interest,” Kirby told ABC’s This Week.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant, who has previously said that after 11 months of fighting Hamas in Gaza Israel was now moving to a “new phase” in the war, said he had spoken to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin about the strikes on southern Lebanon.
“Provided the Secretary with a situation assessment of Hizbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hizbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians,” Gallant said on X. “We also discussed the wider regional situation and the threats posed by Iran and its proxies.”
