By Middle East Correspondent
LONDON, (The Muslim News): Israeli drone struck a vehicle on the airport highway in Beirut before another car was targeted minutes later in the same area reported Lebanon’s National News Agency. The Israeli army said two Hezbollah members had been targeted in the Beirut area but did not provide further details. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the intended target was Hezbollah’s official responsible for “fire management,” though the individual’s identity was not disclosed.
Lebanese media also reported that Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike on the city of Choueifat south of Beirut. The Israeli military later said it had completed a “wave of attacks” in Lebanon, claiming that Hezbollah infrastructure had been destroyed. According to the statement, the strikes targeted Hezbollah rocket launch sites south of the Litani River and a workshop used to produce drones.
The escalation followed an attack earlier in the week by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. On Monday, Hezbollah said it had targeted a military site in northern Israel with rockets and drones in response to ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amid joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Following the attack, the Israeli military announced the launch of an “offensive campaign” against Hezbollah and carried out a series of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army also launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 72 people had been killed and 437 others injured in Israeli airstrikes since Monday.
Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon began in October 2023 and escalated into a full-scale conflict in September 2024. According to Lebanese authorities, the conflict has killed more than 4,000 people and injured about 17,000 in Lebanon.
The UN’s Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was “seriously concerned” about an Israeli demand for civilians to evacuate from its area of operations, stating: “UNIFIL notes with serious concern the latest Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement demanding evacuation of the civilian population from UNIFIL’s area of operations to north of the Litani river.” The mission added that peacekeepers had observed Israeli military movements near El Khiam, Beit Lif, Yaroun, Houla, Kfar Kila, Kherbeh and Kfar Shouba while airstrikes and other aerial activities continued, warning that the actions violated UN Resolution 1701 and “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Hezbollah said it had carried out several drone and missile attacks targeting Israeli military sites and command headquarters in central and northern Israel.
In a statement, the group said it targeted the Dado base, the headquarters of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, northeast of Safed, with a missile. It also said its fighters targeted the Giv’a drone control base east of Safed with a precision-guided missile.
The group added that a swarm of attack drones struck the headquarters of Israel Aerospace Industries in central Israel.
Hezbollah said missile and drone attacks also targeted the Tel Hashomer base in Tel Aviv, Iron Dome radars at the Kiryat Eliezer site in northern Israel, and the Ein Shemer missile defence base east of Hadera in north-central Israel.
The group also claimed drone attacks on the Haifa naval base and Ramat David Air Base in northern Israel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted a gathering of Israeli army forces at the Metula site in northern Israel with a rocket barrage. It also claimed attacks on a Merkava tank and an armoured personnel carrier in the village of Houla in southern Lebanon.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said the group would continue to confront Israel. “Our choice is to confront the enemy to the fullest extent, and we will not surrender,” he said. Qassem described Hezbollah’s missile launches as “a response to 15 months of Israeli violations, including the killing of (Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei.”
“As long as the occupation exists, resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right,” he said, adding that 500 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 15 months.
In a separate development, the Israeli army said sirens were activated in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona after a drone launch from Lebanon was detected.
Israel has imposed strict restrictions on the publication of information about casualties resulting from Iranian or Hezbollah missile strikes or interceptions and bans the circulation of related footage.
US-Israel attacks has killed over 900, injured over 6,000 people
The escalation coincides with ongoing strikes on Iran by Israel and the United States. Iran’s Health Ministry said at least 926 people had been killed and 6,186 injured in the attacks since Feb. 28.
[Photo: Mourners carry Iranian flags and portraits of children as they gather during a funeral ceremony for children, who lost their lives after a primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province was targeted in US and Israeli attacks, on March 03, 2026 in Minab, Iran. Thousands of people, including families and officials, attended the ceremony. Photojournalist: Stringer/AA]
Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said 2,054 of the wounded were receiving hospital treatment, while 3,545 had been treated and discharged and 552 received care at the scene, adding that 502 surgical operations had been carried out so far.
According to the ministry, women accounted for 13% of those killed and men for 87%. It said 180 of those killed were under the age of 18, including three children younger than five. The youngest fatality was a one-year-old child in Tehran.
Among the injured, 301 were under 18 years old and 39 were younger than five. The youngest injured person was a six-month-old boy, while the oldest was a 91-year-old man.
Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Gulf countries that host US military assets.
The UN refugee agency said an estimated 100,000 people fled the Iranian capital Tehran in the first 48 hours of the strikes. According to the agency, road police recorded between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles leaving the city each day, mainly heading toward northern provinces.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also held a phone call with Bafel Talabani, head of Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to discuss what Iran described as “terrorist activity” along the shared border and the need to strengthen security cooperation.
Talabani highlighted steps taken to reinforce border security and emphasised cooperation and coordination to prevent destabilising actions and maintain stability along the border, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
In a separate call, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged Iran to halt attacks on countries in the region during a conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said the missile strikes were directed at American interests and not intended to target Qatar; Sheikh Mohammed “categorically rejected” the assertion, stating that civilian and residential areas inside the country had been struck.
[Photo: Mourner hold a portrait of her school children during a funeral ceremony for 170 children, who lost their lives after a primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province was targeted in US and Israeli attacks, on March 03, 2026 in Minab, Iran. Thousands of people, including families and officials, attended the ceremony. Photojournalist: Stringer/AA]
