At least 37 people were killed and 151 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes that hit different parts of Lebanon, mainly the Southern Suburb, Dahiyah, in the Lebanese capital Beirut, on Thursday October 3, and Friday, October 4.
In the early hours of Friday, Israeli warplanes launched scores of airstrikes on the Southern Suburb, in proximity to Beirut International Airport. Lebanese civil defense crews engaged in debris removal and rescue operations were reportedly targeted by Israeli warplanes as well.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stated that the heavy airstrikes on Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters. Whereas, some international media outlets reported that the target was the head of Hezbollah’s executive council Hashem Safieddine, who is presumed to succeed late Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, after he was assassinated by Israel last week.
On Friday morning, an Israeli airstrike hit an area near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, cutting off a main road that links the two countries, and which was used by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Israeli aerial attacks on Lebanon. The airstrike created a four-meter wide crater, according to media reports. An Israeli drone strike also targeted a public hospital in the town of Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least four paramedics.
As Israel intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon, Iran reiterated its commitment to supporting the Lebanese government, people, and resistance in their struggle against Israeli aggression. “Be sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is and will be firmly standing by the friends in Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who visited Beirut on Friday told reporters.
Araghchi also wrote on his account on X: “I am in Beirut—alongside members of our Parliament and Red Crescent Society—to make clear that Iran will ALWAYS stand with people of Lebanon. We invite other regional govts to also display steadfastness in their support for Lebanon, especially amid onslaught by Israeli regime.” Moreover, the top Iranian diplomat emphasized his country’s continuous support to Hezbollah saying: “My presence today in Beirut in these difficult circumstances is the best evidence that Iran stands with Hezbollah.”
For their part, Hezbollah fighters continued their fierce cross-border clashes with the IOF troops preventing them from infiltrating into Lebanon as part of Israel’s planned ground invasion in southern Lebanon. Furthermore, Hezbollah did not stop its retaliatory attacks on strategic sites inside Israel, one of which was a missile attack that hit an area near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea on Friday. According to Israeli media sources, the barrage of rockets launched from Lebanon forced Netanyahu to rush into a shelter after sirens sounded.
