In escalation, Israel bombs Hezbollah-linked finance group

BEIRUT - Israel began bombing Lebanese branches of an association accused of financing the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Lebanese state media reported late Sunday, a further escalation of Israel's nearly month-long war against the militants.

The National News Agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, many of them targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Other strikes hit the association in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and in the country's south, NNA added.

It also reported that a strike had landed near Beirut's airport, the main entry-point of humanitarian assistance to the country and a major evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.

AFP footage showed large plumes of smoke rising close to the facility.

Soon after, Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone Sunday, without saying where. The Iran-backed group also said it had fired several rocket salvos at Israeli troops across the border.

The strikes came after Israel said it had hit dozens of targets during air raids on Lebanon earlier Sunday, as Hezbollah claimed numerous rocket strikes over the border and clashes with Israeli ground troops.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said the Israeli army had "deliberately" damaged one of their positions, the latest incident reported by the force.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops Sunday that the military was stepping up strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, destroying places the group "planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel".

The military warned it was about to attack offices of US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan, calling on residents to move away from its facilities. Strikes began shortly after, according to NNA.

They mark an expansion of Israel's campaign against Hezbollah, as it seeks to degrade the group's ability to fund operations, having already killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders.

Israel turned its focus north towards Hezbollah last month.

Full-scale war erupted after a year of exchanges over the border as Hezbollah fired rockets in what it called support for Hamas Palestinian militants at war with Israel in Gaza since 7 October last year.

SILENT STREETS

In southern Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, said an Israeli "army bulldozer deliberately had demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position".

Four days earlier, European Union nations with troops in the thousands-strong mission had agreed to "exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel" to prevent further "incidents" against UNIFIL.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said Israel has "no intention" of harming the peacekeepers.

Earlier Sunday the Israeli military said it hit the "command centre of Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters" and underground weapons facility in south Beirut.

On Saturday night the military had similarly reported striking weapons stores and a "Hezbollah intelligence headquarters" in the area.

Just a month ago, south Beirut's bustling streets were packed with traffic, families strolling about and youths in cafes. Now silence dominates the abandoned Hezbollah bastion.

About 70 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel Sunday within a matter of minutes, the military said, adding it had intercepted some of them.

The NNA later reported 14 Israeli strikes in the space of 15 minutes on a single border village, Khiam.

The Lebanese army, which is not fighting in the war, said three of its soldiers had been killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in southern Lebanon.

Israel's military announced the death of a brigade commander in northern Gaza.

ISRAEL'S 'IMPUNITY': JORDAN

Gaza's civil defence agency on Sunday said an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed 73 Palestinians late Saturday in Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia.

The Israeli military said it struck a "Hamas terror target" in Beit Lahia, adding that the toll figures given by Gaza authorities "do not align" with the information it possessed.

The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation "condemned the strike in the strongest terms", describing Israel's actions in Gaza a "stain on the conscience of humanity".

Posting on X, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi again accused the international community of granting "impunity" to Israel's government which "is brutally terrorising the whole population to push them out of their homeland".

Israel's military said it had killed more than 65 Hezbollah militants during strikes on dozens of targets in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said Sunday it had fired rocket barrages at Israel, including against military bases near Haifa, Safed and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.

Israeli firefighters used aircraft to battle flames after a rocket strike near Rosh Pinna, in the Safed area.

Hezbollah also claimed an attack against "the city of Haifa." AFPTV images showed puffs of smoke in the sky above the port of Haifa as air defences intercepted rockets and a siren wailed.

Since its beginning last month, the Israel-Hezbollah war has killed at least 1,470 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

The Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel last year that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's campaign to crush Hamas and bring back hostages held there has killed 42,603 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

Israel, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground assault on October 6, tightening its siege there and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.

"We are now trapped with no food, water or medicine, facing starvation amid the rubble and destruction," said Ahmad Saleh, 36, from northern Gaza's Al-Tawbah area.