Israel launches heavy airstrikes in Lebanon after pager and radio blasts

Israeli warplanes carried out the most intense attacks on southern Lebanon in almost a year of war on Thursday night, escalating the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah amid calls for restraint.

The White House said a diplomatic solution was achievable and urgent, while Britain called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing that the United States was “fearful and concerned about the potential for escalation.”

The intense firestorm followed attacks that Lebanon and Hezbollah attribute to Israel earlier this week that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers, killing 37 people and wounding some 3,000 in Lebanon.

The Israeli military said that in an operation on Thursday, its warplanes attacked hundreds of missile launchers in southern Lebanon over a two-hour period, which were to be immediately fired at Israel.

More than 52 bombings were carried out in southern Lebanon after 9 p.m., Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

Three Lebanese security sources said they were the heaviest airstrikes since the conflict began in October.

There are no immediate reports of fatalities.

The Israeli military said it would continue attacks on Hezbollah and said Thursday’s attacks hit about 100 rocket launchers and other targets in southern Lebanon.

In a televised address on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the explosive device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday “crossed all red lines.”

“The enemy has crossed all boundaries of control, law and morality,” he said, adding that the attacks “can be considered war crimes or a declaration of war.”

Israel did not directly comment on the detonations of the pagers and radios, which security sources said were most likely carried out by the Mossad spy agency, which has a long history of carrying out sophisticated attacks on foreign territory.

The Lebanese mission to the United Nations said in a letter to the UN Security Council on Thursday that Israel was responsible for detonating the bombs using electronic messages and explosives placed in the bombs before they reached Lebanon, consistent with theories that have circulated since the explosions.

The 15-member Security Council is due to meet on Friday to discuss the blasts. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the Security Council to take a firm stance to stop Israel’s “aggression” and “technological warfare.”

ISRAEL VOWS TO HEZBOLLAH TO PAY “IGNING PRICE”

As Nasrallah’s speech was broadcast, Beirut was shaken by the deafening roars of Israeli warplanes, a sound that has become commonplace in recent months, but has taken on greater significance amid the growing threat of all-out war.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday evening that Israel will continue military operations against Hezbollah.

“There are significant opportunities in this new phase of the war, but also significant threats. Hezbollah feels it is being persecuted, and the sequence of military actions will continue,” Gallant said in a statement.

“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes on, Hezbollah will pay an increasingly high price,” Gallant said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called his closest ministers for consultations, Israeli news channel 13 reported.

The Israeli military said two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Israel on Thursday.

“A BIG, HORRIBLE BLOW”

Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel a day after a cross-border attack by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

Since then, there has been constant exchange of fire. Although neither side has allowed it to escalate into a full-scale war, it has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the border area on both sides.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah hopes Israeli troops will enter southern Lebanon because it would create a “historic opportunity” for the Iranian-backed group.

He added that no escalation of military operations, assassinations, attacks or all-out war will lead to the return of Israeli residents to the border area.

Israel will face a “crushing response from the resistance axis,” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami told Nasrallah on Thursday, state media reported, referring to a coalition of Iran-linked terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, Hamas and armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

Speaking in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed for restraint, adding that he did not want either side to take escalatory actions that could make it harder to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

Attacks on Hezbollah communications equipment have sparked fear across Lebanon, with people abandoning electronic devices for fear of carrying bombs in their pockets.

Nasrallah said the explosions went off in thousands of pagers simultaneously, and some of the explosions occurred in hospitals, pharmacies, markets, shops and streets full of civilians, women and children.

Israel says the conflict with Hezbollah, like the Gaza war with Hamas, is part of a broader regional confrontation with Iran, which sponsors both groups as well as armed movements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Israel has been blamed for attacks including an explosion in Tehran that killed a Hamas leader and an attack on the outskirts of Beirut that killed a senior Hezbollah commander within hours of each other in July.