Israel bombards northern Gaza and southern Beirut, stepping up attacks on Iran proxies

Israel intensified its bombardment of southern Beirut and northern Gaza overnight, as the Israeli military stepped up its airstrikes against Iran-allied militant groups.

An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said. Huge bombings hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital from late Saturday into Sunday, according to reports.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza nearly a year after the Iran-backed militant group’s Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli military has opened a new front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began.

Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after it launched a ballistic missile attack on the country last week, as the conflict threatens to widen into a regional war.

A broader conflict would risk drawing in the U.S., which has provided military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as Washington-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The Israeli military has been expanding its bombings in Lebanon. Massive airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs from late Saturday into Sunday, Reuters reported. At least eight strikes rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday, some of them close to the airport, according to the report.

On Saturday, Israel made its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, and Israeli troops launched raids in the south.

Before the recent surge in hostilities, exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area. Hezbollah began a campaign of cross-border strikes on Israel a day after Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The latest Israeli strikes came after days of bombardment of Beirut suburbs considered Hezbollah strongholds. The attacks killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and possibly his potential successor.

Israeli jets “struck Hezbollah terrorists who were operating within a command center — used to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israel — that was located inside a mosque adjacent to the Salah Ghandour Hospital in southern Lebanon.” the Israel Defense Forces said.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Iran will face “consequences” for the missile barrage Tehran fired at Israel on Oct. 1. Netanyahu said Iran had made a “big mistake” and will “pay for it.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to Tehran’s missile attack.

“Hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump said at a campaign event in North Carolina on Friday. “I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have — nuclear weapons.”

Trump criticized U.S. President Joe Biden for his comments on the issue earlier in the week. When asked about Israel potentially targeting Iran’s nuclear program, Biden said “the answer is no.” Biden added that the U.S. and the other members of the G-7 all “agree that [Israel has] a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally.”

Israel has not given assurances to the Biden administration that targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities is off the table, a top U.S. State Department official told CNN on Friday. The official added that it is “really hard to tell” if Israel will use the anniversary of the war on Monday to retaliate.