Israel hits Beirut as strikes escalate after Nasrallah death

Israel bombed the center of Beirut for the first time in almost a year of hostilities with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, stepping up air assaults following the killing of the Iran-backed group’s chief last week.

The strike on a building in the heart of the Lebanese capital early Monday killed three senior members of a Palestinian group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Lebanon’s state-media reported. Hamas, still at war with Israel in Gaza, said the head of its Lebanese branch died in an attack on his home in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s deputy, Naim Qassem, said the group’s forces are prepared to fight the Israelis on the ground if they stage an incursion. “We are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land,” he said in a televised speech, his first public comments since the assassination of leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.

The attacks signal no let up in Israel’s campaign to paralyze its enemies in Lebanon and elsewhere after the killing of Nasrallah, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the biggest-ever blow to Iran’s network of proxy militias spanning from Gaza to Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

Hezbollah’s attacks continued. Israel said it intercepted a drone over Mediterranean waters that the Army Radio said was probably heading for an offshore rig for the Karish natural gas field.

Israel has said it’s preparing a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon, a step the U.S. and others fear would risk a drawn-out conflict pitting Tehran against Washington. Israel’s special forces have been carrying out small, targeted raids for months across the border in Lebanon, ahead of a possible ground operation this week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past two weeks have killed at least 1,000 people, including 100 in the last 24 hours, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, according to local officials.

While most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership has been killed and much of its arsenal destroyed, officials say it retains substantial capability to inflict losses on Israeli forces and fire missiles across the border.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was scheduled to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Monday. He’ll also see House Speaker Nabih Berri, who’s a close ally of Hezbollah. Mikati said the Lebanese army is ready to deploy to the Israeli border to implement a United Nations resolution on de-escalating the crisis.

Hezbollah began cross-border rocket attacks on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas, a day after the Palestinian group staged an unprecedented attack in Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.

Another front has opened up in Yemen, where Israeli fighter jets bombed a seaport and several power stations Sunday following a string of attacks this month on central Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Netanyahu gave the order Friday to assassinate Nasrallah from his hotel room in New York, just before giving a defiant speech to the United Nations General Assembly that rejected a U.S.-backed push for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Washington, Israel’s closest ally, was given only a last-minute heads up as its latest bid to stop the violence failed.

Friday’s massive strike against Nasrallah — it leveled several buildings and killed a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, among others — was the latest in a series of dramatic attacks. They began earlier this month when thousands of pagers and walkie talkies belonging to Hezbollah members exploded.

Hezbollah is now selecting Nasrallah’s successor. His nephew, Hashem Safieddine, is seen as the front-runner.

Iran is in no rush to retaliate, judging by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s first reaction, in which he suggested Hezbollah and Lebanon would lead the response. Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday the country won’t send forces to Lebanon to fight Israel.

The U.S. believes Iran is restrained by the weakening of its most important proxy, according to a person familiar with American policy. Moreover, when Iran attacked Israel directly in April, its hundreds of missiles and drones were almost all intercepted.

Netanyahu called Nasrallah’s death “necessary” to enable tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled Hezbollah’s attacks over the past 11 months to return home. But in a video address, he had a warning for his people: “In the coming days, we will face significant challenges.”

The U.S. said it’s beefing up its already-substantial military presence in the region, a signal to Tehran about the dangers of reacting too aggressively.

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(With assistance from Dana Khraiche, Marissa Newman and Omar Tamo.)