Israel appears poised to launch a ground incursion into Lebanon, as its army chief Herzi Halevi said on Saturday that his forces were prepared for what was to come and Lebanese residents were told to flee to safety.
His comments came after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other senior members of the Lebanese Shiite militia.
"Challenging days lie ahead of us," Halevi said in a video released by the army. The Israeli army was "on high alert, both defensively and offensively, on all fronts," he said, adding they were prepared for what comes next.
The Hezbollah commander responsible for southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, was also killed, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
Israeli forces said they killed a senior Hezbollah intelligence officer, Hassan Khalil Yassin, who was said to have led a unit involved in planning rocket attacks on Israel. He was "eliminated" in a strike on Beirut in a targeted airstrike, the IDF said.
A brigadier general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in Israeli strikes on a Hezbollah headquarters, according to Iranian reports.
Multiple Iranian news outlets reported that it was Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, the deputy head of operations of the IRGC.
Israel attacks southern Beirut again
The IDF attacked a southern suburb of Beirut, with initial Lebanese reports saying the district that was hit was Chiyah.
The IDF unleashed a massive wave of attacks on the area in the south of Beirut at the start of the week, a densely populated residential area considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Scores of people have fled the area.
In the evening, security sources said Israeli warplanes had hit an area very close to Beirut international airport.
Israel is repeatedly calling on people in parts of Lebanon to stay away from Hezbollah facilities and to seek safety until further notice.
The latest warning applies to residents of the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut and southern Lebanon, according to a call in Arabic released by an Israeli military spokesman.
Such evacuation calls from the military are usually a sign of impending new Israeli attacks. But many people in areas controlled by Hezbollah often do not know which buildings are used by the militia.
Lebanese death toll rising
The number of victims of Israel's attacks continues to rise, with 1,030 killed between September 16 and 27 alone, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Some 6,300 people were injured.
The number of fatalities from Israel's massive attack on a Beirut suburb has reached 11, and 108 people were injured, the ministry said, but the figures are likely to rise as people are still buried beneath the rubble and many remain missing.
More than 50,000 Lebanese people have fled to civil war-torn Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi posted on X. Meanwhile more than 200,000 people in Lebanon are internally displaced amid the attacks, he said.
World responds to Hezbollah leader's death
Beirut residents mourned Nasrallah's death, while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared three days of official mourning.
The killing of Nasrallah, a cleric who led Hezbollah for more than 30 years and built the Lebanese militant group into a powerful force, is one of the heaviest blows ever dealt by Israel to Hezbollah.
Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah built huge political influence in Lebanon as well as a military arm that is considered a significant force in the region.
He also helped forge close ties with Iran's IRGC, the group's most important backer and supplier.
Hezbollah pledged "to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people." It did not say who would replace Nasrallah.
Iran called the killing a war crime and ordered five days of mourning.
"The Zionist [Israeli] attacks are a clear war crime and the West's response to it is a disgrace," President Masoud Pezeshkian said. He alleged that the US approved the attack and thus bears partial responsibility for Nasrallah's death.
Iran continues to stand by Hezbollah and the anti-Israel resistance front and called Hezbollah invincible, he said, echoing earlier comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden said the United States "fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups."
But Moscow vehemently condemned the deadly attack and demanded an immediate cessation of all hostilities from Israel. "This violent action bears potentially dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the killing a "political assassination" in comments to the UN General Assembly.
But Israel is insisting that the northern area must be safe for Israeli residents to return to and that Hezbollah withdraw approximately 30 kilometres north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, behind the Litani River, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 passed years ago.
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