US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday for the first time in two months as Israel prepared to retaliate against Iran while also waging war on its southern and northern borders.
Vice-president Kamala Harris joined the call, which was aimed at defusing tensions in the Middle East, said a person familiar with the matter — even as the region slid towards a wider conflict between Israel, Iran and its proxy militias.
The Israel Defense Forces clashed with Hizbollah fighters just over the Lebanese border, after launching an intense wave of air strikes on Tuesday that reached as far as southern Beirut. On Wednesday it also issued forced evacuation orders in northern Gaza, while carrying out air strikes in which dozens of people were reported killed, and was readying its retaliatory attack on Iran for a ballistic missile assault by the Islamic republic last week.
The frenzy of military offensives included explosions in Syria in recent days, also blamed on Israel. It came as the US pushed its closest ally in the region to avoid strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and cautioned against attacking the country’s energy infrastructure.
Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon, which began late last month, has swollen to four divisions of troops — which at full strength would amount to as many as 20,000 soldiers — as the country’s conflict with Iran-backed Hizbollah intensifies.
That invasion has overshadowed the IDF’s war with Hamas in Gaza, which has entered its second year with no end in sight. On Wednesday Palestinians reported air strikes in northern Gaza, while health officials said they had received warnings to evacuate three big hospitals in the north of the strip.
At least 30 bodies were recovered from five days of fighting in a renewed offensive in the Jabalia refugee camp, local health officials said. The IDF have returned to the camp several times over the past year as Hamas regroups. Dozens more people were killed elsewhere in Gaza, and the UN warned that civilians were unable to flee the fighting.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of UNRWA, posted on X.
In the north, Israeli troops and Hizbollah fighters clashed near the Lebanese border, and two people were killed in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona after a rocket barrage by the Iran-backed militant group, according to the IDF and local health authorities. Several people were wounded, and social media showed houses on fire in the town.
Hizbollah said its fighters had confronted Israeli troops trying to “infiltrate” the border village of Blida after targeting them with an explosive device.
It said its militants fired rockets and artillery shells, forcing the retreat of Israeli troops trying to advance near Labbouneh in the south-west.
Israel said at least three of its soldiers have been wounded in the fighting with Hizbollah this week.
The Israeli army is breaching the Lebanese border in at least four locations after launching its invasion, with each division probably supporting one point of entry, said an Israeli official, who declined to provide more details.
Netanyahu on Tuesday released a video message in which he called on the Lebanese population to rise up against Hizbollah, urging them to “save” their country “before it falls into an abyss of destruction and suffering like Gaza”.
While much of the direct fighting between Israeli troops and Hizbollah fighters was close to the border, the Israeli air force had carried out a large series of co-ordinated strikes concentrating on southern Lebanon but extending into the Bekaa Valley, the IDF said.
Hizbollah has responded by firing projectiles into northern Israel and as far south as Haifa, a commercial and cultural hub. A handful of rockets have also been launched towards Tel Aviv this week.
The IDF said it had tracked 180 “projectiles” crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory through late Tuesday night, including a major barrage at Haifa.
Israel is also conducting regular air strikes in Syria, where Hizbollah and Iranian forces have a presence.
On Tuesday, Syria’s defence ministry accused Israel of launching three missiles that struck a residential and commercial building in the Mezzeh neighbourhood of Damascus, which it said killed seven civilians, including women and children.
Mezzeh is home to many foreign embassies, including Iran’s, as well as offices linked to Syrian state security. An air strike on Wednesday killed one person in the southwestern town of Quneitra, according to the Syrian state news agency.
Israeli bombardment of Lebanon has decimated the command structure of the group, including killing Hassan Nasrallah, its top leader.
The air strikes on Tuesday were the second-largest wave of attacks since Israel dramatically intensified its air campaign against Hizbollah in Lebanon late last month, two Israeli officials said, as it focused on a large bank of targets identified by military intelligence.
That wave of bombings, which began around September 20, eventually included nearly 5,000 air strikes over several days, according to a Financial Times tally.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,100 people over the past year and forced about 1.2mn from their homes, mostly in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel has said its Lebanon offensive is aimed at securing its northern border area to allow about 60,000 Israelis to return to their homes, after a year of exchanging cross-border fire with Hizbollah. The Lebanese group began firing rockets towards Israel in support of Gaza a day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Cartography by Steven Bernard
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