Destruction in Beirut after IDF's strike
A surface-to-surface missile was fired at central Israel on Saturday, the IDF said. It likely fell into the sea. No sirens were activated but an explosion was heard throughout the metropolitan area and beyond.
The IDF continued its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon including in the capital Beirut, from the air and sea, after targeting the terror group's leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike on the group's underground headquarters on Friday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut his U.S. visit short and departed for Israel a day early in the wake of the attack.
Nasrallah's fate remains unknown as rescue efforts continued to reach those trapped under the rubble after some six apartment blocks above the bunker were leveled in the attack.
Rocket fire targeted the West Bank early on Saturday after strikes on the Galilee region overnight. Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias claimed responsibility for four attacks on Israel, claiming to target strategic sites in the north including the Golan Heights and the south using attack drones. Israel said it did not know about such attacks.
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Part of an aerial intercept falls in Nablus after Hezbollah targets the West Bank on Saturday
A senior Israeli official told the New York Times that the strike on the Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern sector of Beirut, was to eliminate the group's senior leaders and commanders, to avoid a ground incursion into Lebanon. The officials also said it may take weeks before the results of the strike are known including the fate of Hassan Nasrallah who was thought to have been in the bunker when the IDF attacked.
A U.S. official said on Friday that if he was there, he could not have survived.
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Aftermath of Israel's strike on Hezbollah's underground command center in Beirut on Friday
The military said Hezbollah's missile unit commander in South Lebanon, Muhammad Ali Ismail and his deputy terrorist Hussein Ahmad Ismail were killed in a targeted strike.
on Friday that it was attacking Hezbollah's strategic assets including their weapons storage facilities. IDF spokesperson in Arabic, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee urged civilians to immediately leave areas where Hezbollah command centers and weapons were located including the Munir Shadid building and adjacent structures in the Laylaki neighborhood, the Shiyit building and nearby structures in the Al Hadath neighborhood and the Al Salam complex in the area.
In a televised statement, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that the IDF exposed Hezbollah's hidden weapons cashes in South Lebanon in recent days and their strikes aim to reveal how Hezbollah stores strategic weapons and arms in Beirut’s Dahieh, using buildings as shields.
"We will not allow any transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in any way," Hagari said. "We know about these transfers and are thwarting them. IAF aircraft are patrolling the Beirut area, and we are making it clear that hostile flights with weapons will not be allowed to land at Beirut airport. It is a civilian airport and must remain as such."
the Munir Shadid building and adjacent structures in the Laylaki neighborhood, the Shiyit building and nearby structures in the Al Hadath neighborhood and the Al Salam complex in the area.