JERUSALEM/BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah arms facilities in southern Beirut on Saturday after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into northern Israel and a spokesman said a drone was launched at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s holiday home.
Netanyahu was not there at the time, and it was not immediately clear if the building was hit. But he described it as an assassination attempt by “Iran’s proxy Hezbollah” and called it a “grave mistake”, as Israel prepares to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month.
The strikes came as medics and Hamas media in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting to root out the Palestinian militant group for more than a year, said Israeli bombardments had killed more than 100 people across the coastal enclave and a siege around three hospitals had tightened.
Promises by Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting have chilled hopes that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday might lead to truces in Gaza and Lebanon and prevent further escalation in the Middle East.
Officials, diplomats and other sources say that with U.S. elections approaching, Israel is seeking to use intensified military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.
On Saturday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza with a picture of Sinwar and the message: “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”.
Israeli strikes later on Saturday on a multi-floor building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 73 people and wounded dozens, medics and Hamas media said.
The Israeli military is checking reports of casualties from an airstrike in northern Gaza, an Israeli official said, adding that a preliminary examination suggested the numbers had been exaggerated and did not match information it had received.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israel carried out heavy strikes on several locations, leaving thick plumes of smoke hanging over the city into the evening.
The strikes targeted “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters command centre”, Israel’s military said.
Israel had issued evacuation orders for four separate neighbourhoods within the suburbs, urging residents to get 500 metres (yards) away, but carried out strikes in other areas as well, witnesses said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the southern suburbs – once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground installations – since Israel began regular strikes there about three weeks ago.
An Israeli air attack on Sept. 27 killed Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, and strikes nearby have killed other top figures from the Iran-backed group.
The United States would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around Beirut, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed two people as they were travelling on Lebanon’s main highway near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh. Israel’s military said it was looking into the incident.
Another strike killed at least four people in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, health authorities said. One of them was the mayor of a nearby town, the second mayor to be killed this week.
In a series of Hezbollah rocket salvos in Israel, one person was killed and at least nine injured, the Israeli ambulance service said.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on any drone attack targeting Netanyahu’s house in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea, which the prime minister said was aimed at killing him and his wife.
The conflict over the past year has caused direct Iranian-Israeli confrontations, including missile attacks on Israel in April and on Oct. 1.
Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the October ballistic missile attack.
“I say to Iran and its proxies in its axis of evil: Anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price,” he said in a statement following the Caesarea attack.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement: “We have already responded to the Israeli regime, and the action in question has been carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
