Israel launches new strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, warns people in Beirut and elsewhere to evacuate

Missiles slammed into southern Lebanon, shattering the early-morning silence Monday as Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah weapons hidden in residential buildings. The explosions came as Israel heralded a new wave of attacks on the Iran-backed group in Lebanon, warning civilians to flee from any areas where the organization had weapons or fighters positioned.

The warnings, delivered with automated phone calls, text messages and reportedly even over Lebanese radio stations hacked into by Israel’s military, came after a weekend of deadly crossfire between the two bitter enemies in the heart of the Middle East. 

Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets in a salvo over the weekend, and it sent them hurtling deeper into northern Israel and “toward civilian areas,” according to the Israeli military, wounding at least three people and spreading panic further into a region where many villages have already been abandoned.

In a video posted on social media, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Monday morning that raids on homes and other buildings being used by Hezbollah to hide and launch weapons in Lebanon would “begin soon,” warning residents to follow orders from the Israeli army to evacuate.

“The raids will begin soon. Evacuate the houses where #Hezbollah has hidden weapons immediately,” Adraee said in the video, speaking Arabic. “Hezbollah is lying to you and sacrificing you.”

“We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon, the actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said in his own video message, warning his nation of “days ahead of us when the public will have to show composure.” 

The warning to Israelis was likely a reference to expected retaliation from Hezbollah or Iran’s other so-called proxy groups in the region.

Lebanon’s state-run media said people in some parts of the capital Beirut and in southern areas of the country — both areas where Hezbollah has long enjoyed significant support — received automated phone messages warning them to evacuate. The French news agency AFP said someone in national Information Minister Ziad Makary’s office got one of the calls.

The minister’s office told AFP that someone took a call on the office landline and heard a “recorded message” telling them to evacuate.

The warnings about what appeared likely to be a significant intensification of Israel’s assault on Hezbollah came after a weekend of increased fire between the two sides over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed group is a powerful political and military force.

Hezbollah started launching rocket and drone attacks on Israel as soon as Israel launched its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to that group’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Israel’s long-time arch rival Iran, and both have long been designated as terrorist groups by both the Israeli and U.S. governments.

The IDF has stepped up strikes on purported Hezbollah targets across Lebanon for weeks, vowing to remove the threat they pose to enable the safe return of tens of thousands of residents from towns and villages in Israel’s northern border region who’ve been evacuated due to the cross-border fire.

As Israel ramps up offensive operations against Hezbollah, it does so with wary U.S. support. The Biden administration has voiced concern for months about the tit-for-tat attacks by Israel and Hezbollah, simmering in parallel to the war in Gaza, escalating into a full-scale conflict. The concern is based largely on an assessment that a wider conflict in the Middle East will put U.S. troops increasingly in direct danger. Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have already targeted U.S. forces in the region with deadly drone fire during the Gaza war.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke on Saturday with Gallant following another barrage of Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel, and he “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself,” according to a readout of the call from the Pentagon, but he also “stressed the importance of achieving a diplomatic solution” to the crisis and “his concern for the safety and security of U.S. citizens in the region.”

The long-feared escalation in violence between Israel and Hezbollah — which is a far larger and far better equipped militant group than its ally Hamas — started snowballing last week with Israel’s officially-unclaimed covert operations to blow up thousands of pagers and walkie talkies carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon. Those attacks killed about 40 people, including an unconfirmed number of Hezbollah figures and at least two children, according to Lebanese officials.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted the explosions were a “severe blow” to the group, and he accused Israel of not only violating “all red lines” with the attacks, but of a “declaration of war.”

Israel hasn’t admitted to carrying out the complex attacks using rigged communications device, but CBS News learned that American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began, though no specific details were shared about the methods to be used.