Israel army says it attacked Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to continue striking the Lebanese group

Emergency workers clear the rubble after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs. AP

Live updates: Follow the latest from Israel-Gaza

The Israeli army said on Friday it struck Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue striking the Iran-backed Lebanese group.

The army was checking if Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was hit in the strike, Israeli Army Radio reported.

“Moments ago, the [army] carried out a precise strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organisation – that served as the epicentre of Hezbollah's terror,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

“Hezbollah's central headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahieh, in Beirut, as part of Hezbollah's strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields,” he said.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported a series of “violent” strikes by Israeli warplanes on the suburb.

The agency said six buildings have been completely destroyed in the strike and 10 teams from the Lebanese Red Cross arrived to the scene.

In a speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday, Mr Netanyahu said that his country will “continue degrading Hezbollah” until it achieves its goals along the Lebanon border, dampening hopes of a 21-day truce proposed by France and the US this week.

“Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that’s exactly what we’re doing … we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met,” Mr Netanyahu told world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

Mr Netanyahu defended Israel's devastating response to Hama's October 7 attacks that killed more than 41,500 in the Palestinian enclave and devastated most of the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas has got to go” and would have no role in the-post war Gaza, he said as he vowed to fight until “total victory.” The Prime Minister said that Israeli forces have destroyed “90 per cent” of Hamas’ rockets and killed or captured half of its forces.

“I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life,” He said. “But after I heard the lies and slanders levelled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”

Mr Netanyahu threatened of striking Iran, if they strike Israel and blamed them for being behind many of the problems in the region.

Ahead of his speech, protesters gathered outside Netanyahu's hotel in New York to demand an end to the violence in Gaza and Lebanon.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Netanyahu said Israeli officials have met to discuss US proposals for a ceasefire in Lebanon and will continue talks in the coming days, just a day after his office and senior Israeli politicians rejected the prospect of a truce and vowed to press on with the offensive.

“Our teams met [on Thursday] to discuss the US initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes [in northern Israel],” Mr Netanyahu said on X, before his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday. “We will continue those discussions in the coming days.”

More than 25 people had been killed in Lebanon since midnight, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a press conference on Friday as Israeli strikes continued hitting the south of the country.

Confusion over the prospect of a ceasefire in Lebanon rose after countries including the US and France on Wednesday unveiled a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire that would pave the way for talks and a durable truce along the Israel-Lebanon border. Mr Netanyahu's office was quick to dismiss the announcement, saying fighting would continue in Lebanon. It denied reports Mr Netanyahu approved the start of talks to end the conflict with Hezbollah that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is standing in for Mr Netanyahu while he attends the UNGA in New York, also denied there would be a ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel will fight against Hezbollah “with all its might until victory” and the return of displaced Israelis to their homes, Mr Katz said at the time.

Far-right ministers, members of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party and municipal leaders condemned any suggestion of a pause in fighting, saying it would allow Hezbollah time to recover from weeks in which Israel increased attacks on the group. Mr Netanyahu's latest statement made no reference to the comments made by Israeli officials, including Mr Katz, rejecting the prospect of a ceasefire. The Prime Minister said there had been “a lot of misreporting around the US-led ceasefire initiative”.

“Israel shares the aims of the US-led initiative of enabling people along our northern border to return safely and securely to their homes,” the statement said. “Israel appreciates the US efforts in this regard because the US role is indispensable in advancing stability and security in the region.”

Israel and Lebanon cross-border strikes – in pictures

Israel is currently fighting on two fronts, in Gaza and Lebanon. On Thursday, Israel said it secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the US to support its military operations.

Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began on October 7. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have fled their homes, with Israel declaring that an aim of the war was to ensure the return of displaced citizens to the north of the country.

Hezbollah has also fired rockets towards Israel, with the majority intercepted by the country's air defence systems. The Israeli military on Friday said 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon at Haifa, setting off sirens in the northern coastal city. Some of the rockets were intercepted, while others struck open areas, the military added.

But Israeli attacks in the past week have struck deeper into Lebanon, killing more than 700 people and hitting hundreds of targets, including in the capital Beirut.

A family of nine was killed in an Israeli strike on their three-storey home near Shebaa Farms, Lebanon's official news agency reported on Friday. The death toll from Thursday's strikes rose to at least 92, The National found, using figures released by the Lebanese Health Ministry's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre.

France opposes Lebanon “becoming a new Gaza”, President Emmanuel Macron told a joint news press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, describing the number of casualties in Lebanon as “absolutely shocking” and expressed France’s solidarity with the Lebanese people.

Israel has vowed to intensify its bombardment of Lebanon in an effort to kill senior Hezbollah commanders, who it claims are hiding among civilians. Israel has made similar accusations about Hamas in Gaza, where more than 41,500 people have been killed, including more than 17,000 children. About 96,000 have been injured.

Israel's strikes and ground offensive in Gaza followed a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted.

Three Palestinians were killed on Friday morning during Israeli shelling across the Gaza Strip, medical sources told local media. A man was killed in shelling on displaced people sheltering in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir Al Balah. Two others were killed when Israeli forces bombed a house in the northern city of Jabalia.

The regional crisis also involves Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Five Syrian soldiers were killed and one wounded on Friday in an Israeli strike on military sites in Kfar Yabus, near the border with Lebanon, Syrian state media reported.

The Israeli military said earlier that it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels towards Tel Aviv. It was downed “outside the country’s borders”, but sirens sounded as shrapnel fell, the military added.