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Israeli warplanes bombarded dozens of targets in southern Lebanon before dawn on Sunday in what Israel’s military described as a pre-emptive attack against Hezbollah, and the armed group followed by firing a barrage of what it said were hundreds of rockets into Israel.
The cross-border strikes were some of the heaviest in months between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, and left at least three people dead in Lebanon, the health ministry there said. But within hours of the attacks, both sides signaled they were easing, with Hezbollah saying its military operation had “finished for the day.” Israel reopened Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv after a brief closure, in a sign that officials believed the strikes would be contained, although the Israeli military said it was still carrying out air attacks against Hezbollah targets.
For now, at least, the exchange of attacks fell short of the major escalation that many had feared after an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in the Beirut suburbs last month. Iran has also warned it would strike Israel, which it blamed for the killing of a Hamas leader on its soil shortly after that, although an attack by Tehran hasn’t materialized, and officials there had telegraphed in recent days that a direct strike on Israel might have been placed on hold.
Still, the attacks underscored the threat of a wider war in the Middle East, and added urgency to the Biden administration’s push to close a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, an effort to lower temperatures in the region.
Here’s what else to know:
Israel’s attack: The Israeli military said roughly 100 of its fighter jets bombed more than 40 targets in southern Lebanon, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “thousands of rockets” aimed at Israel had been destroyed. Some of the rocket launchers hit in the strikes had been programmed to fire at 5 a.m. in the direction of Tel Aviv, according to a Western intelligence official. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that at least three people had been killed and two others hurt in Israel’s attack.
Hezbollah barrage: Hezbollah later said it had fired more than 320 rockets at nearly a dozen Israeli military bases and positions. If confirmed, it would be one of the largest barrages since the war in Gaza began last October. It was not immediately clear whether any of the rockets had hit their targets. Israel said it had largely thwarted the strikes, and an Israeli military spokesman said there had been “very little damage.”
Regional tensions: Concerns of a wider conflict in the region have been elevated in recent weeks, following the assassinations of Mr. Shukr and Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on July 31 during a visit to Tehran. Israel claimed responsibility for the airstrike on Mr. Shukr in the Beirut suburbs, but has remained silent about the other killing. To show support for Israel and in a bid to deter Iran, the United States has steadily moved Navy forces closer to the area, including two aircraft carrier groups and an attack submarine.
Hezbollah leader to speak: Hezbollah said that Hassan Nasrallah, its leader, would deliver a speech at 6 p.m. (11 a.m. Eastern) in which he would refute Israel’s claim that it had disrupted his group’s attacks.
Gaza talks: Officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar — who are mediating the talks — were planning to meet in Cairo later on Sunday with an Israeli delegation to discuss the latest cease-fire proposal. Hamas leaders were also in Cairo, though it was unclear if they would participate in the meeting. Despite a full-bore diplomatic push from the Biden administration, Israel and Hamas remain far apart on key issues, leading officials to conclude that an immediate breakthrough is unlikely.
Ronen Bergman, Hwaida Saad and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.
U.N. missions in Lebanon called on all sides to “refrain from further escalatory action.” In a joint statement, the U.N. peacekeeping mission and the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon urged “a return to the cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli airstrikes continued in southern Lebanon late Sunday morning, the Israeli military said, albeit at a lower intensity than in its preemptive attack several hours earlier. In a statement, the military said it had struck several more Hezbollah rocket launchers and militants in the area in the past hour.
An Israeli delegation is still expected to head to Egypt later today to advance talks on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, according to two Israeli officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. Senior officials from Qatar, the United States and Egypt — the countries brokering the talks — have gathered in Cairo. Hamas leaders arrived in the city on Saturday night, but it was not clear whether they would participate in the negotiations.
Nadav Shoshani, the Israeli military spokesman, said that Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets and drones toward residential areas of northern Israel on Sunday. “This is a part of a larger attack that was planned, and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that at least three people had been killed and two others hurt as a result of Israel’s pre-emptive attack. The health minister, Firass Abiad, said by phone that it was “too early to tell” if the toll would rise, although Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported that the airstrikes had mostly “targeted forested and open areas.” Hours after the strikes in Lebanon began, the Israeli military continued to target areas across the country’s south with airstrikes and artillery fire, the agency said.
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Hezbollah announced that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will deliver a speech in which he will refute Israel’s claim that its military disrupted the group’s attacks. The timing of the speech will be determined later on Sunday, Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah announced in a statement that its “military operation has finished for today,” claiming to have fired drones at a significant but unidentified target inside Israel. The group dismissed Israel’s statements that it had launched a successful pre-emptive attack against Hezbollah’s forces. “These are empty claims,” the statement said.
But Nadav Shoshani, the Israeli military spokesman, said there was “very little damage” from Hezbollah’s rocket and drone barrage this morning.
The Israeli military said it had deployed around 100 fighter jets in its overnight operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, striking thousands of barrels used to launch rockets that were aimed at northern Israel. The military said that Israeli warplanes attacked around 40 sites where Hezbollah militants had set up launchers, mostly in southern Lebanon.
Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that Hezbollah had planned to launch at least some munitions at central Israel, which would have been a serious escalation in the continuing hostilities. Hezbollah has mostly fired at targets close to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
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Before Sunday’s attacks, tensions in the Middle East had been high for weeks in the wake of high-profile assassinations of senior leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The July killings intensified the longstanding conflict between Israel and Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah and which has threatened retaliation. They also fueled alarm among global leaders, including in the United States, where the Biden administration has urged restraint to prevent a broader war from engulfing the region.
Here are some of the key developments in recent months.
Jan. 2: A Hamas leader’s killing in Beirut
Hamas accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a senior leader, along with two commanders from its military wing in an explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. Previously, Beirut had been far from the cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia that, like Hamas, is aligned with Iran. Mr. al-Arouri was the first high-level Hamas official to be killed outside the West Bank and Gaza in recent years. Israeli officials declined to comment, but Lebanese and U.S. officials attributed the attack to Israel.
Jan. 6: Hezbollah’s retaliation against Israel
In response to Mr. al-Arouri’s assassination, Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets at a small military base in northern Israel. Though Hezbollah said it caused casualties, the Israeli military reported no injuries and responded with its own strikes in Lebanon. Analysts viewed Hezbollah’s response as a symbolic act rather than a significant escalation, with the group firing about 40 rockets toward Mount Meron, an area housing a military radar station.
April 1: Airstrikes in Damascus
Israel carried out airstrikes that hit part of the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus, Syria, killing three senior Iranian commanders and four officers involved in Iran’s covert operations. The attack, one of the deadliest in the yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran, increased regional tensions, which were already strained over the war in Gaza and hostilities involving Iran-backed groups. Israeli officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed the strike but denied that the targeted building had diplomatic status.
April 14: A barrage of missiles and drones against Israel
Iran retaliated for the Damascus strikes by launching more than 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first open attack on Israel from Iranian soil. The strikes, aimed at military targets, caused minor damage and injured a young girl. Israel intercepted most of the projectiles and others were shot down by U.S. and Jordanian defenses. The calibrated attack, telegraphed well in advance, demonstrated Iran’s effort to avoid mass casualties or direct war, analysts said.
July 13: An airstrike in a designated humanitarian zone of Gaza
Israel tried to kill Muhammad Deif, a top Hamas military commander in Gaza, in an airstrike that the territory’s health ministry said killed 90 people and injured 300 others. The strike hit a strip of coastal land known as Mawasi, which Israel had designated as a humanitarian zone, and where thousands of displaced Palestinians were living. Mr. Deif, believed to be a mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, had long been a high-priority target, and after weeks of uncertainty about his condition, Israeli authorities said in August that he had been killed. Hamas has not explicitly confirmed or denied Israel’s claim.
July 27: Rocket strikes in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights
A rocket from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Druse town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 teenagers and children, according to the Israeli military. It was the deadliest single attack from across Israel’s northern border in months of hostilities. Israel accused Hezbollah, but the group denied responsibility.
July 30: A second strike in Beirut
Israel targeted Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah leader and close adviser to the organization’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a deadly strike in Beirut. Israeli officials described the attack as a response to the Golan Heights rocket strike, but the assault quickly raised concerns in the region about Israel’s willingness to strike deep within Lebanese territory.
July 31: A top Hamas official is killed in Tehran
Hours after the strike in Beirut, Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders and a key figure in the stalled cease-fire talks, was assassinated in Iran, where he had gone for the inauguration of that country’s new president. Iran and Hamas said Israel had carried out the killing, and they vowed to retaliate. Mr. Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’s political office and helped manage negotiations for a cease-fire, was killed by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, as well as an American official.
August: A barrage of cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah
The recent assassinations appeared to further worsen the prospects for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. The pace of cross-border strikes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon also escalated drastically.
In mid-August, an Israeli airstrike hit a factory in a small town in southern Lebanon, killing at least 10 civilians, according to Lebanese officials. It was one of the largest death tolls in Lebanon since the war in Gaza started in October.
Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.
Flights resumed at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv at 7 a.m. local time, the Israeli military said. Earlier in the morning, as Israel declared a state of emergency, the airport had closed for over two hours. Some flights were diverted to other airports.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that thousands of rockets aimed at Israel had been destroyed in the pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah. He once again called for an end to the displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis by months of hostilities. “We are determined to do everything to protect our country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes and continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them,” he said.
Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported that Israel’s strikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday were “the most violent” since the war in Gaza began in October. At least two people were injured, one of them critically, and the strikes caused “severe damage” to local infrastructure, including electricity and water networks, the agency said.
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With fears rising that a wider war could break out in the Middle East, the United States has steadily been moving Navy forces closer to the area, including two aircraft carrier groups and an attack submarine. And it has not been shy about announcing the details, in a clear effort to deter Iran and its allies from more intense attacks on Israel.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the region.
Two aircraft carriers — the Theodore Roosevelt and the Abraham Lincoln — and their accompanying warships and attack planes are now in or near the Gulf of Oman. Mr. Austin also made public his order to send the attack submarine Georgia to the region, an unusual move as the Pentagon seldom talks about the movements of its submarine fleet. The Georgia can fire cruise missiles and carry teams of Navy SEAL commandos.
The orders came in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel to avenge the assassination of a top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 31.
While the United States has said these moves are to help defend Israel and avert a wider regional war, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday night that the American military was better positioned to address a threat from Iran, and that the Israeli Defense Forces would shoulder the bulk of any defense from attacks carried out by Hezbollah across the border in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is currently at the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, along with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and military officials, according to a statement and images distributed by the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu is planning to convene his security cabinet shortly.
Hezbollah said in the wake of the Israeli attack that it had begun an “initial response” to the Israeli assassination in late July of Fuad Shukr, the Hezbollah senior commander. The Lebanese militant group said it had fired a large number of drones and rockets at targets in Israel. “These military operations will take some time to complete, and after that a detailed statement will be issued,” the group said in a statement.
In a second statement, Hezbollah said it had successfully completed the first stage of its attack on Israel. Hezbollah said it had fired more than 320 rockets at nearly a dozen Israeli military bases and positions, a figure that would make the barrage one of the largest of the war if confirmed. It was not immediately clear if any of the rockets had hit their targets.
Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said President Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.” He said Biden had directed national security officials to remain in continuous contact with their Israeli counterparts. “We will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability,” Savett said in the statement.
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, spoke with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin a short time ago, briefing him on the Israeli military’s early-morning action in Lebanon meant “to thwart an immediate threat” against Israel, according to a statement from Gallant’s office. The two “discussed the importance of avoiding regional escalation,” the statement added.
A Pentagon statement about the call said Austin had reaffirmed the United States’ “ironclad commitment to Israel’s defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies.”
Israel’s pre-emptive attack was aimed at missile launchers in Lebanon that had been programmed to be fired at 5 a.m. in the direction of Tel Aviv, according to a Western intelligence official. The official said that all the launchers that had been targeted were destroyed and that Israel was anticipating a harsh response from Hezbollah.
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Hours before Israel’s pre-dawn attack on targets in Lebanon, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, had warned in a televised statement that his country was “facing a significant week ahead.” Negotiators had been preparing to meet in Cairo today to discuss a potential deal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as combat continues in the enclave and along Israel’s northern border.
Sirens warning of incoming rocket fire are sounding in many Israeli communities in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport has closed, with all departures and landings canceled until at least 10 a.m. local time, the Israeli airport authority announced.
Two senior U.S. officials declined to comment on the Israeli strikes, or on the prospect of a potential Hezbollah or Iranian retaliation, referring all questions to the Israeli Defense Forces.
One senior U.S. official said the United States had not been given advance notice of Israel’s intent to carry out pre-emptive strikes. But a second U.S. official said that Israel had briefed American officials in the past day and said the I.D.F. had assessed that Hezbollah was planning to attack early Sunday morning.
Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a televised statement that Israel was pre-emptively striking Lebanon to remove an immediate threat. He said that Hezbollah was likely to strike Israel imminently, and warned Lebanese civilians to flee from areas where Hezbollah was preparing to launch missiles and rockets.
