Hezbollah – the next stage of open-ended fighting in Israel, after the funeral of General Reuven Qassem

ARRAF: It took a lot of strikes. Hezbollah fired about 150 rockets, missiles and launched explosive drones into Northern Israel today, including near the northern city of Haifa. The Israeli forces said they destroyed most of them and the Israelis said they attacked over 200 targets in Lebanon. Qassem, at the funeral, said fighting had entered a new stage of open-ended battle. When a cease-fire is reached in Gaza, he said fighting at the Israeli Lebanon border would stop.

The Israeli Attacks Against Hezbollah: Their Reactions on the Building and the Defense of the Censorship Organization

A rush deadline is when NPR transcripts are created. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Availability and accuracy may be different. The audio record is the most authoritative record of NPR programming.

ARRAF: Qassem said after the pager attacks, they were in shock. Thousands of pagers exploded at the same time. And then the next day, walkie-talkies detonated, killing altogether more than 42 fighters and civilians and injuring about 3,500. He said the attacks did not change people’s opinion of Hezbollah. He said that Hezbollah had a plan for revenge and that today’s attacks were a small part of it. And he said those Israeli attacks were creating the next generation of fighters.

Hezbollah is accused by Israel of turning entire communities into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure. That could lead it to wage an especially heavy bombing campaign, even if no ground forces move in.

NAIM QASSEM: (Through interpreter) This is a nation that cannot be defeated. The United States, America, is drowned. The aggressiveness and genocide with Israel swamped it from top to bottom.

ARAF: It had been a crazy few days here. There were two days of funerals in the southern suburbs where a building was demolished on Friday.

Hezbollah members were in the basement of an eight-story building when it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a top Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit, known as the Radwan Force.

The Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting some 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers.

The rockets streaked over a wider and deeper area of northern Israel than previous volleys and set off air raid sirens across the region. The military said rockets had been fired towards civilian areas, which pointed to a potential escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.

The rescue service said four people were treated for wounds including a man who was moderately wounded in Haifa when buildings were damaged and cars set on fire. It was not clear if the damage came from a rocket or an Israeli missile.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, when the militant group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. The low-level fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the frontier.

Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Most of the captives who were released during the cease-fire in November are believed to have died, but some are still being held.

Hezbollah launched a number of new missiles, called Fadi 1 and Fadi 2, at a base southeast of Haifa in response to the Israeli attacks that led to the fall of Lebanon.

At least seven women and three children were killed in the air strike on the building, according to Lebanon’s health minister. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.

It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, and the casualty count could grow, with 23 people still missing, a government official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke up the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths. He had been accused of involvement in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and taking American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980’s.

A top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen fighters died in an Israeli air strike on a suburb of Lebanon’s capital city.

According to the military, it had hit more than 150 militant sites. Residents of different villages in southern Lebanon were pictured with large amounts of smoke on their social media accounts. The state-run National News Agency also reported airstrikes on different areas.

It wasn’t clear how many people were affected by the Israeli orders. Both sides of the border have mostly emptied out because of the frequent exchange of fire.

Israeli military commanders condemn Israeli strikes against militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon – the first strike occurred near the border of Byblos

The psychological war implemented by the enemy has led to this, and people should not give the matter more attention than it deserves.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said in a statement that his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.

“If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice,” the Arabic message reads, according to Lebanese media.

An official from the Israeli military said that there are no plans for a ground operation at this time. The official said the strikes were to stop Hezbollah from launching more strikes into Israel.

The first strikes hit a forested area in the central province of Byblos north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, according to the National News Agency. No injuries were reported there. A shepherd was killed and two family members were wounded in northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, when Israel bombed their targets. It said a total of 17 people were wounded in the strikes.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military on Monday called on residents of southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate homes and other buildings where it claimed Hezbollah stores weapons and said it was carrying out “extensive strikes” against the militant group.