Hezbollah clashes with Israel on south Lebanese border as strike kills Hamas leader in north

Attack claimed life of the leader of Hamas' armed wing Al Qassam Brigades

Smoke rises over Beirut's southern suburbs on Saturday, after overnight Israeli strikes. Reuters

Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops advancing towards the Lebanese border in the south on Saturday, as an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in the north-west killed a leader of Hamas' armed wing.

With the assault on Lebanon's second-largest city, Israel has now attacked almost all of Lebanon. The Israeli strike hit the refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Tripoli, a coastal city.

“Hezbollah fighters confronted the attempt and clashes are continuing,” the group said in a statement. It had said earlier its fighters had forced the Israeli troops in the same area to retreat.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group also said it targeted troops in the Yarun area of southern Lebanon with a rocket salvo, as well as soldiers at two points across the border.

In Tripoli, Saeed Atallah, a leader of Hamas's Al Qassam Brigades, was killed along with three relatives, Hamas-affiliated media reported on Saturday. The Israeli military said he "carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets and worked to recruit Hamas operatives inside Lebanon."

On the same day, Israel's military issued another warning for residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to leave the area immediately.

Elsewhere, a hospital in south Lebanon has evacuated almost all of its staff after an Israeli bombing injured nine medical staff. The Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil said it had received a phone call from the Israeli army telling them to leave immediately before the attack.

Medical staff have been moved out, while a small number of administrative staff will stay to look after the property, the hospital said. On Friday, three Lebanese hospitals suspended their work because of the Israeli bombardment.

Hezbollah said its fighters launched Fadi-1 rockets on Saturday towards Israel's Ramat David air base near the northern city of Haifa, about 45 kilometres from the Lebanese border. The group also said its fighters hit an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon, near the border, with a missile.

A security source confirmed to The National on Saturday that there was still "no connection" with Hezbollah's Hashem Safieddine, who went missing after a major strike on Beirut’s southern suburb on Friday. The attack, reportedly the largest since the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was claimed by Israeli media to have been aimed at Mr Safieddine.

Mr Safieddine, a cousin of Mr Nasrallah, served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council and is widely regarded as a likely successor to the organisation’s top leadership.

Israeli strikes also continued on the Gaza Strip, where eight people were killed and others injured in an overnight attack on Nuseirat camp and the city of Deir Al Balah, the official Palestinian news agency reported. In a separate strike, at least five people were killed in Israeli artillery shelling in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Damascus where he met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and other officials. Mr Al Assad said "resistance against all forms of occupation, aggression and mass killing is a legitimate right," according to Syria's Sana news agency. He also praised Iran's attack on Israel.

"The most important issue today is the ceasefire, especially in Lebanon and in Gaza," Mr Araghchi told reporters. "There are initiatives in this regard, there have been consultations that we hope will be successful."

The meeting came a day after the Iranian minister's visit to Beirut, where he met senior Lebanese officials, including caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally. He had voiced approval for a truce in Lebanon acceptable to Hezbollah "simultaneously with a ceasefire in Gaza".

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’s cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 240 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed at least 41,800 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israel's military launched a wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon, killing more than 1,110 people since September 23, and forcing millions to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.

The attacks have killed an Iranian general, a host of Hezbollah commanders and, in the biggest blow to the group in decades, its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The US announced it will be sending $157 million in aid to Lebanon as the Israeli invasion goes on.

Israel announced it began a ground invasion into Lebanon on Tuesday against the Hezbollah, while continuing strikes in Gaza. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel, saying it is targeting Hezbollah in an effort to make Israel's northern area safe for the return of displaced people, has intensified its bombardment.

An Israeli air strike on Friday cut off a main motorway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two craters on either side of the road.

The air strike rendered the road unpassable, leaving people to go on foot to the Masnaa border crossing, where tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria in the past two weeks.

The Israeli military said on Friday that two soldiers were killed by a drone strike in northern Israel. It said at least two other soldiers were “severely injured” in the attack, and that the drone entered the country from the east. It did not elaborate.

Later on Friday, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in Iraq calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced it had launched drone strikes on “three targets in three separate operations in the Golan and Tiberias”, a city in Israel. The group regularly claims drone strikes against Israel, but weapons have rarely landed.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed in a rare address on Friday that allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he justified his country's missile strike on its foe.

Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Saturday he was "not worried" about the rapidly escalating conflict in the region amid reports Israel will hit Iran, the ministry's Shana news site said. Mr Paknejad's comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.

Mr Khamenei's address in Tehran followed Iran's second direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into war in Lebanon.

Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, Mr Khamenei defended the Palestinian group's “logical and legal” actions and hailed its “fierce defence” against Israeli forces.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden said Israel should consider avoiding hitting Iranian oil infrastructure. “If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields,” Mr Biden told reporters.

However, Republican White House hopeful and former president Donald Trump said on Friday he believes Israel should strike Iran's nuclear facilities in response to the Islamic Republic's recent missile barrage.