BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel said late on Sunday it was preparing attacks on sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group within hours and told residents to leave those areas immediately, as it intensified assaults there and in Gaza.
The warning came hours after Israel said it hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut, while officials in Gaza said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Saturday that killed dozens.
“Residents of Lebanon, the IDF (Israeli military) will begin attacking infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association – get away from it immediately,” the military’s spokesperson said in a statement on X.
The Hezbollah-linked financial institution has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 across central Beirut and its suburbs.
In the northern Gaza Strip, officials said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya that left 87 people dead or missing on Saturday, according to the health ministry – one of the highest death tolls for months from a single attack.
Israel said it was investigating reports of the incident.
It marked an intensification of Israel’s offensives against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire negotiations to end more than a year of conflict.
With U.S. elections approaching, officials, diplomats and other sources in the region say Israel is seeking through military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.
Israel is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was the subject of an assassination attempt by “Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah” on Saturday when a drone was directed at his holiday home. In a call with former U.S. President Donald Trump, the prime minister reiterated that Israel would make decisions based on its own interests, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Israel’s government has spurned several attempts by the United States, its main ally and military backer, to broker ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.
In Beirut, Israel said its air force had followed strikes on Saturday with an attack on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters there as well as an underground weapons workshop.
Fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, the Israeli military said.
Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from Beirut’s southern suburbs, once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground installations.
On a visit near the border, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said forces were dismantling Hezbollah tunnels, weapons stores and infrastructure. “Our goal is to completely ‘clean’ the area so that Israel’s northern communities may return to their homes,” he added.
Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.
Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets in support of Hamas.
At the start of October, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilise the border region for its citizens who had fled rocket attacks in northern Israel.
On Sunday in southern Lebanon, security and civil defence sources said two aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike on a house being used as a clinic, while the Lebanese military said three of its soldiers were killed in a strike on an army vehicle.
Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack that sparked the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response in Gaza has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.