Israel, Hezbollah and Beirut
Digest more
Iran, Beirut and Tehran
Digest more
Israeli strikes have hit a hotel in a Beirut suburb and a residential complex in eastern Lebanon, killing at least 11 people, as Israel’s military issued more forced displacement orders across the country and advanced farther into Lebanese territory.
Israel on Thursday launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, which stepped up its attacks on Gulf nations Qatar and Bahrain, as the Middle East war spread throughout the region and beyond.Qatar said
Israel launched strikes on Lebanon as war spiralled in the Middle East, ignited by joint US-Israeli attacks in February 2026 that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But footage of a nighttime explosion circulating on social media does not show recent attacks on Beirut;
The Israeli military said it had begun a “broad-scale” attack in Iran’s capital, hours after hitting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. The Pentagon said Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes were decreasing. A banner of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed in strikes on Saturday, hangs in an area of the capital hit in an attack on Thursday. The Red Crescent Society said the death toll in Iran had risen to 787 since the start of the attacks last week. Euan Ward Erika Solomon Dayana Iwaza and Ephrat Livni Even as Israeli drones hovered over Beirut, Lebanon, the Israeli military said it had begun a “broad-scale wave of strikes” against the Iranian regime infrastructure’s in Tehran in the early morning hours of Friday in the Middle East. Israel made the announcement only hours after it had unleashed a major bombardment Thursday evening on a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in another sign that Lebanon is fast becoming a new front in the widening conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran. A series of airstrikes caused huge explosions in the Dahiya area, on the outskirts of the city, in the most intense attack since a cease-fire in late 2024 halted fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. At least three buildings totally collapsed. Hundreds of displaced people were sleeping on the streets of downtown Beirut, some huddling around small fires to stay warm. The intensified bombardment came not long after Israel military officials acknowledged that their forces had moved deeper into Lebanon than previously disclosed and Israeli armed vehicles began massing at the border. The Israeli military had said earlier that it was going to hit targets in the Dahiya, warning people to evacuate to the north and setting off a panicked exodus on Thursday. The New York Times In Washington, President Trump said that he should have a role in choosing Iran’s new leader, and that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who appears to be the leading candidate — to succeed his father, was an “unacceptable” choice. Mr. Trump’s comments, in interviews with Reuters and Axios, were the most explicit he has made about his view of an American role in creating a new government in Tehran.
Tens of thousands have fled their homes in Lebanon’s south as Israel issues forced evacuation order for entire area.