Maariv newspaper reported that “the Israeli army raised the state of alert in the Air Force, the Home Front Command and the Medical Corps to the maximum level.”
In turn, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that French President Emmanuel Macron accused Israel, in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of pushing the region into war.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said on Friday that his country’s “enemies” would not find refuge even in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where an airstrike killed a top Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Akil.
“There is no refuge for our enemies, not even in the Beirut suburbs,” Galant wrote on the X platform, referring to the southern suburbs where Israel said it killed Ibrahim Akil, the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, along with “about 10 officials” in the party.
The latest Israeli raid came two days after Hezbollah was targeted in an attack that caused simultaneous explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used by members of the group, killing 37 and wounding many more.
Israel is widely believed to have carried out the attacks, although it has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib on Friday described the bombing of thousands of mobile phones this week in his country as a “terrorist” attack and held Israel responsible.
The explosions that killed dozens across Lebanon over two days were “an unprecedented method of warfare in its brutality and terror,” Bou Habib told the UN Security Council, adding that “targeting thousands of people of all ages going about their business in their homes, in the streets, at their jobs, in shopping malls, is simply terrorism.”
Bou Habib explained that Israel would risk displacing new numbers of residents of the north if it launched a war on Lebanon.
For his part, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said in a Security Council session devoted to discussing developments in Lebanon on Friday that Israel is not seeking to expand the conflict with the Lebanese Hezbollah.
In his speech, Danon stressed that Hezbollah “violates international law.”
He explained that: “If Hezbollah does not withdraw from the border area and return to the north of the Litani River through diplomatic channels, Israel will use all means to defend its citizens.”
He continued, saying: “Israel will do what is necessary to return the Israelis to their homes in the north. Israel will not allow Hezbollah to continue its attacks.”
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