Beirut/Jerusalem: Israel said that it had targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut and was assessing the damage on Friday after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group that Iran's Supreme Leader dismissed as counterproductive.

Crucial border crossing cut off
Israel carried out another series of punishing airstrikes on Friday, hitting suburban Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Hezbollah militant group.  It maintains that its strikes focus on military targets while taking steps to minimize civilian casualties. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of using civilians as shields, a claim both groups deny.

The strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Beirut, led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing -- the first time it has been cut off since Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire almost a year ago. Israel said it targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border. It said fighter jets had struck a tunnel used to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into Lebanon. Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry through Syria from Iran, its main backer.

Intel HQ targetted at midnight
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah's central intelligence headquarters around midnight. It did not say who it was aiming for or if any militants were killed in that strike, but it claimed to have killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area. Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million (12 lakh) driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries' shared border.

Israel has been considering its response to Tuesday’s Iranian ballistic missile attack, which Iran carried out in retaliation for Israeli military actions in Lebanon. Oil prices have risen due to concerns that Israel might target Iranian oil facilities as it continues its efforts to push back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminate their Hamas allies in Gaza.

The airstrike on Beirut, part of a broader offensive that has displaced more than 1.2 million Lebanese, reportedly targeted the potential successor to Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel a week ago. The fate of Hashem Safieddine remains unclear, with no official comment from either Israel or Hezbollah.

Ground offensive
The Israeli military stated that approximately 70 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Friday evening, either intercepted or landing in open areas. In response to the Iranian missile attacks, Israel deployed ground forces into Lebanon this week. It has described these ground operations as "localized" near the border villages, but has not specified how far into Lebanon the operations will extend or how long they will last. Israel says the goal is to enable tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after being displaced by Hezbollah bombardments in the north.

Biden's response
US President Joe Biden said on Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel's shoes, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.

Biden was asked at a White House press briefing if he thought that by not engaging in diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to influence the November 5 US election in which Republican former President Donald Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don't know but I am not counting on that," Biden said in response. "No administration has done more to help Israel than I have."

The government in Lebanon says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on civilians “totally unacceptable.”

The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken down the overall figure between civilians and Hezbollah fighters. The US State Department said that an American was killed in Lebanon this week and Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident. Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the US congresswoman representing his district.

The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants' October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and displaced nearly Gaza's entire population, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.

Iran vows not to back down
Iran's missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel's killing of Hezbollah secretary-general Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a huge crowd in Tehran, Iran and its regional allies would not back down.

Israel's adversaries in the region should "double your efforts and capabilities... and resist the aggressive enemy," Khamenei said in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, at which he mentioned Nasrallah and called Iran's attack on Israel legal and legitimate. He said Iran would not "procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty" in confronting Israel.

The semi-official Iranian news agency SNN quoted Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi as saying on Friday that if Israel attacked, Tehran would target Israeli energy and gas installations.

Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hezbollah official Safieddine, rumoured to be Nasrallah's successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut overnight but his fate was not clear.

Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday the military was still assessing the Thursday night airstrikes, which he said targeted Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters.

Earlier the Israeli military reported that it had killed the head of Hezbollah's communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi. It declined to comment on the report that Safieddine was targeted.

Hezbollah made no comment on the fate of Sakafi. Khamenei said assassinations would just spur more attacks.

"Every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity," he said, adding that Afghanistan should join the "defence".

Flattened Beirut buildings
In Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, many buildings have been reduced to rubble. Nearly all the storefronts in the main market street, Moawad Souk, were damaged and the road filled with broken glass.

"We're alive but don't know for how long," said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south.

The Islamic Health Authority, a civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah, said 11 medics had been killed in three separate Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Friday.

The Israeli military said that in the past day it had struck several weapons storage facilities, command and control centres, and Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Beirut area.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, visiting Beirut and meeting with top Lebanese officials, said Tehran supported efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon provided it was backed by Hezbollah and was simultaneous with a Gaza ceasefire.
(With Reuters, AP inputs.)