Israel has announced a 48-hour state of emergency as Hezbollah launches strikes from Lebanon. The Israeli military said it was also striking Hezbollah targets.
Hezbollah chief says strikes targeted Israeli base near Tel Aviv
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his group’s attack on Israel targeted a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv around 100 kilometers (70 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border.
The “main target for the operation” inside Israel was “the Glilot base — the main Israeli military intelligence base,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech, denying statements by the Israeli military.
He said despite Israel pre-empting the attack by launching strikes on southern Lebanon, “None of our precision or strategic missiles were damaged.”Egyptian president warns against Lebanon escalation
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C.Q. Brown, warning him about the dangers of escalation in Lebanon.
The Egyptian president told Brown that the international community needed to “exert all efforts and intensify pressures to defuse tension and stop the state of escalation that threatens the security and stability of the entire region.”
He warned of the dangers of opening a new front in Lebanon, and stressing the need to preserve Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty,” in a statement published by his office, summarizing the meeting with Brown.
It comes after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, in one of the largest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare between the two countries.
El-Sissi also called for a stronger response “to joint Egyptian-American-Qatari efforts” for a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange, which would enable a “path to calm and stability in the region,” the statement read.
For its part, the White House said on Friday that cease-fire talks in Cairo have been constructive and were expected to continue over the weekend to continue to press Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire agreement.Lebanon strikes ‘not the end of the story,’ Netanyahu says
Israeli forces on Sunday carried out what they called preemptive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, destroying thousands of rockets aimed at northern Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also announced that Israeli forces had successfully shot down numerous Hezbollah drones en route to Israeli sites. Hezbollah declared that it had launched the large-scale attack in response to the killing of one of its top commanders last month.
Netanyahu warned Iran and Hezbollah that Sunday’s operation signaled “another step toward changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes,” adding, “This is not the end of the story.”
Air France suspends flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut
Flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut scheduled for Sunday and Monday from France have been suspended, the country’s flagship airline said.
Air France usually runs a daily service to both cities, and it had already halted flights to Beirut between July 29 and August 15.
The announcement comes after a spike in cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah early Sunday.
Royal Jordanian Airlines, Jordan’s flag carrier, also suspended its Beirut flights, citing “the current situation.”
Germany’s Lufthansa extended its Beirut flight suspension on Friday, to last until the end of September, and announced it would not fly to Tel Aviv and Tehran until September 2.
According to French news agency AFP, Beirut’s airport was still open Sunday, but many passengers were left stranded due to delayed or canceled flights.
