Israel hits 20 sites in Beirut within 2 minutes, in major offensive ahead of truce

Israel launched a wave of simultaneous airstrikes Tuesday afternoon on 20 Hezbollah targets in the terror group’s Dahiyeh stronghold in southern Beirut, shortly before the security cabinet was set to convene and approve a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Additionally, the Israel Defense Forces said that for the first time in 24 years, its soldiers had reached a portion of the Litani River, where it runs relatively close to the border.

After issuing an unusually broad evacuation warning for 20 buildings in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, the IDF said that within two minutes, it had struck all 20 sites.

The swift and extensive wave of airstrikes was carried out by eight fighter jets, according to the military.

Seven buildings targeted in the strikes were used by Hezbollah for the management and storage of funds, the IDF said, including headquarters, vaults and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, known to be used by the terror group as a quasi-bank.

The other 13 sites included a Hezbollah aerial forces center, an intelligence division command room, weapon depots, and other military infrastructure, the IDF said.

The military released footage showing the strikes.

An extensive wave of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, in a video released by the IDF on November 26, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office said he was approving “the continued IDF offensive operations on the northern front” during an assessment with the military’s top brass and other defense officials.

The meeting approving the battle plans was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, head of the Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of the Strategy Directorate Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir, and head of the ministry’s Political-Military Bureau Dror Shalom.

A short while before the major wave of strikes, Lebanese media outlets reported an additional Israeli airstrike in central Beirut — outside the Hezbollah stronghold — without an evacuation warning being given, indicating the strike was an attempted assassination and not the regular targeting of Hezbollah infrastructure.

من مكان الإستهداف في #النويري في بيروت pic.twitter.com/mkPu45q3T8

— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) November 26, 2024

Later on Tuesday, in a warning to Lebanese civilians, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said the military would be striking numerous branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association.

“Iranian funding and Hezbollah’s independent sources of income are deposited at the association’s branches, and it is used in practice to manage and store the terror assets of the organization,” Adraee said.

The spokesman said the strikes “will be another blow to the Iranian financing chain of Hezbollah, which uses an association under a civilian guise to finance assets for the storage of weapons, the establishment of launch sites, the payment of wages to its terrorists and the build-up of its criminal terrorist organization, on the backs of the people of Lebanon.”

Earlier, in the late morning, the IDF said it had struck six buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs used by Hezbollah’s coast-to-sea missile unit and as command centers. In that case, too, evacuation warnings were issued for the sites.

The military said 26 airstrikes were conducted in Beirut on Tuesday, with the total for this week standing at 50.

According to the IDF, some 330 Hezbollah sites have been struck in Beirut’s southern suburbs since the beginning of the ongoing fighting. In the 2006 Second Lebanon War, for comparison, some 140 sites were struck.

Troops reach Litani River

Earlier, the IDF said its 91st Division had reached the Litani River in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, as well as the Wadi Saluki area, adding that troops located dozens of Hezbollah weapons and sites in both areas.

It was the first time since 2000 — when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon — that IDF troops have reached the Litani River.

In the Wadi Saluki area, troops of the Commando Brigade raided several Hezbollah sites. The IDF said the commandos located and seized hundreds of weapons, and found dozens of bunkers and dozens of primed rocket launchers.

At the Litani River, troops of the Alexandroni Brigade, 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade, Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, and the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag unit raided numerous Hezbollah sites in the area.

The IDF said the troops battled Hezbollah gunmen in the Litani River area, and located and destroyed dozens of rocket launchers, hundreds of rockets, weapon depots, and other weapons hidden in the mountainside.

Wadi Saluki is around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Israel’s border, and the Litani River in the eastern sector is around four kilometers from the northern Israeli town of Metula.

The chief of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, visited the Litani River amid the operations.

The proposed truce deal that Israel is expected to agree to on Tuesday, which would halt the fighting on the northern front, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon, and Hezbollah would end its armed presence south of the Litani River, which in most areas runs some 29 kilometers north of the border with Israel.

Hezbollah commanders slain

Meanwhile, the military said two Hezbollah commanders were killed Tuesday in separate airstrikes, one in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre and one in an unspecified area in southern Lebanon.

The military named the commander slain in Tyre as Ahmed Subhi Hazima, head of operations in Hezbollah’s coastal region of southern Lebanon.

Hazima, who replaced the previous commander after he was killed in a strike on November 17, had advanced numerous attacks against Israel from the western sector of southern Lebanon, including infiltrations and anti-tank missile attacks, the IDF said.

The military described his killing as another blow to the terror group’s capabilities.

Later, the army said an airstrike on southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.

It said fighters from the Commando Brigade — who have been operating in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, under the 98th Division — spotted a cell of Hezbollah gunmen in their area of operations, and directed strikes against them.

Among the dead was the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the sector where the troops have been operating, according to the IDF. The military did not name the exact sector, as troops were still operating there.

The IDF said the troops have also located numerous weapons, including long-range anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and other equipment belonging to Hezbollah.

Also Tuesday, the military said fighter jets struck several Hezbollah weapons depots in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil that were being used to store anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft equipment and other weapons.

In total, the military said 30 airstrikes had been conducted Tuesday in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing into Israel the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, in support of its fellow Iran-backed terror group, drawing Israeli reprisals and leading to the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. Fighting intensified in late September, with Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s leadership and launching a limited ground incursion on October 1.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah fired several barrages at northern Israel, including an evening attack of five rockets at the port city of Haifa, which were intercepted.

Earlier in the day, an IDF soldier was seriously wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on the Mount Hermon area, the military said, adding that it was investigating the incident.

The servicewoman was taken to a hospital for treatment after a drone launched from Lebanon exploded near soldiers in the Hermon.

In Kiryat Shmona, a home suffered significant damage after being hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, police and the Fire and Rescue Services said. There were no reports of injuries in that incident.