Israeli warplanes launched their largest airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, following reports of Hezbollah's plans to retaliate after Israeli attacks earlier in the week killed dozens of Iran-backed fighters.
A report by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said Israeli warplanes carried out a total of 111 airstrikes in one hour - between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. local time - on Saturday in Nabatieh, Iqlim al-Tuffah, and Western Bekaa.
The Israeli military's spokesman Daniel Hagari earlier said 400 Hezbollah launchers were hit in its airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday. An IDF statement said approximately 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel.
The number of Israeli strikes on Saturday is among the highest recorded since the Tehran-backed militant group started firing rockets into northern Israel last year in support of Hamas amid Israel’s war in Gaza, a CNN report said.
The US State Department urged American citizens to leave Lebanon via commercial options while they are still available amid "unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon."
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also issued a similar statement, warning its citizens against travelling to or staying in Lebanon amid fears Israel and Hezbollah may start a full-fledged war.
Iran's response
A possible breakout of the Israel-Hezbollah war can lead to Iran's intervention, igniting a broader regional war.
“After Lebanon, they (Israelis) may bring the war towards Iran," said former IRGC chief-commander Mohsen Rezaei who now serves as a member of Iran's Expediency Council. “Netanyahu is constantly provoking us and taking actions such as attacking embassies and assassinating Ismail Haniyeh to drag us into an all-out war with the United States.”
Iranian authorities have largely tried to avoid getting engaged in a tit-for-tat cycle with Israel, despite huge pressure by the Islamic Republic's supporters following the Israeli assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and several others attacks on Iran and its proxies blamed on Israel.
"Iran will handle these matters with vigilance. Israel will certainly not achieve its goals of escalating tensions, but it will face consequences for its crimes," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during his ongoing visit to New York, referring to a Friday Israeli air raid killing top Hezbollah commanders.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said that 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. 21 others were also killed in the Israeli air strikes that hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
Israel's army said it hit an underground gathering of Aqil and leaders of Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces and had almost completely dismantled its military chain of command.
Friday's strike sharply escalated the conflict and inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks this week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded. The total death toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured.
The attacks on communications devices were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.