Israel pounds south Beirut, says captured Hezbollah members

A series of strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday and early Tuesday, marking the first attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in days, as Israel’s military announced it had captured two members of the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon.

An earlier Israeli strike targeted the upscale, predominantly Christian area of Hazmieh near Beirut, reportedly aiming at a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm.

Live coverage from AFPTV showed clouds of smoke over the southern suburbs of the capital, while Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported multiple strikes in the area, with the sound of low-flying Israeli warplanes heard across Beirut and its surroundings.

The Israeli military also stated that it was “striking Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut” after previously advising residents to evacuate the southern suburbs.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East conflict when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on 2 March in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an Israeli-US operation.

Israel has since launched air strikes across Lebanon, killing at least 1,039 people, and deployed ground troops into the country’s south.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli army said: “During an activity to locate weapons in southern Lebanon, (Israeli) troops identified several armed Hezbollah Radwan Force operatives who were planning to fire an anti-tank missile.” The Radwan Force is the group’s commando unit.

“After being identified, the operatives surrendered. They were apprehended by the troops and transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning", the statement added.

The Israeli military confirmed to AFP that two Hezbollah members had been captured.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, reported more than 50 attacks targeting Israeli troops and bases in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, particularly around the border coastal town of Naqura.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Monday that its headquarters in Naqura had been hit by a projectile, likely fired by a “non-state actor”.

Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported several Israeli strikes, and early on Tuesday, the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for two coastal towns near the southern city of Tyre.

Strike near Beirut

The Israeli strike on Hazmieh killed at least one person, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The affluent area, overlooking Beirut and close to the presidential palace, houses diplomatic missions, government offices, and luxury residences.

The Israeli military said it had “struck an IRGC Quds Force operative in Beirut”, referring to the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Mayor Jean Asmar told journalists that the strike targeted a room inside an apartment rented by a displaced family. He said the attack forced the municipality to implement new measures for hosting people displaced by the war “to ensure such an incident is not repeated”.

Israel previously struck the area on 5 March, though the target was unclear. Another strike in central Beirut days later killed five people, including three Quds Force commanders. Iran accused Israel of killing four of its diplomats in that attack.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the Al Hadath network on Sunday that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were “unfortunately… managing the military operation in Lebanon”.

‘Only just begun’

The two Hezbollah members captured in the south are the latest additions to a list of Lebanese held in Israel since the last war with the group.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein al-Hajj Hassan said in January that Israel was holding “20 Lebanese prisoners”, claiming that 10 had been abducted “inside Lebanese territory after the ceasefire” that ended the previous conflict in 2024.

The following month, Israeli forces seized a member of the Hamas-allied Jamaa Islamiya in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Ella Waweya, said on Monday: “The battle against Hezbollah… has only just begun.”

In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would “continue to strike both in Iran and in Lebanon”.

Israel earlier targeted a bridge linking southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley, a day after striking a major bridge in the Tyre region. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that he and Netanyahu had instructed the military to “destroy all the bridges over the Litani River that are used for terrorist activity”.