Urgent calls for foreign nationals to leave Lebanon intensified on Sunday, with France warning of a “highly volatile” situation as Iran and its allies prepared to respond to high-profile killings attributed to Israel.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has been engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza conflict erupted in October, announced that its fighters had launched a barrage of rockets at northern Israel overnight.
The Israeli military reported that 30 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, with most intercepted.
As Israel remained on high alert, anticipating significant military action from Tehran-aligned armed groups including Hezbollah and Hamas, medics and police reported that two people were killed in a stabbing attack in a Tel Aviv suburb on Sunday. The attacker, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, was “neutralized” by police and later died in the hospital.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, with no end in sight to the nearly 10-month-long conflict triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
France, Canada, and Jordan were among the latest countries to urge their citizens to leave Lebanon. The French foreign ministry advised nationals to avoid traveling to Lebanon and for those already in the country to arrange their departure “as soon as possible.”
The United States and Britain have issued similar warnings. France also advised its nationals in Iran to “temporarily leave,” citing concerns that Iranian airspace and airports could close.
Several Western airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon and other regional airports. On Sunday, Qatar Airways announced that its Doha-Beirut route would operate exclusively during daylight hours, at least until Monday.
The recent killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, shortly after the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut, has provoked vows of retaliation from Iran and the so-called “axis of resistance” of Tehran-backed armed groups. Israel has not directly commented on the attack that killed Haniyeh.
Israel has pledged to dismantle Hamas in response to its October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also captured 251 hostages, with 111 still held in Gaza, including 39 whom the military says are dead.
Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza has claimed the lives of at least 39,583 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief, had been leading negotiations to end the conflict. His death has raised questions about the viability of efforts by Qatari, Egyptian, and US mediators to broker a truce and facilitate the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
In Gaza, fighting persisted on Sunday, with reports of strikes, shelling, and gunfire in and around Gaza City and the southern region. The Israeli military said its air forces had targeted “approximately 50 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in the past 24 hours.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that eight bodies were recovered from a residential building in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli airstrike. Medics at central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said at least five people were killed and 16 wounded in an Israeli drone strike on tents housing displaced Palestinians at the medical complex. A separate attack on a nearby house killed three more people.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike on a school-turned-displacement shelter killed at least 17 people, according to the civil defense agency. Israel claimed the facility was being used by militants.
Analysts have indicated that a joint but measured response from Iran and its allies is likely, with Tehran reportedly expecting Hezbollah to target deeper inside Israel, beyond just military objectives.
In response, the United States, an ally of Israel, has announced plans to deploy warships and fighter jets to the region. US President Joe Biden expressed hope that Iran would refrain from escalating the situation but admitted uncertainty.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi was scheduled to visit Tehran for discussions on “the situation in the region,” according to Amman.
The Israeli military has declared its determination to continue operations until the security situation in the north is fundamentally changed, with Home Front Command chief Rafi Gilo stating that they are prepared for any scenario.
Haniyeh’s killing has brought the Middle East to its “moment of greatest peril in years,” according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). The potential for a miscalculation leading to a broader war “without constraints” is now greater than it was in April, the ICG warned.
The ICG also noted that securing “a long overdue ceasefire” in Gaza would be the most effective way to de-escalate tensions in the region.
Hamas officials, as well as some analysts and protesters in Israel, have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the conflict to maintain his hard-right coalition in power. Netanyahu, however, stated that he is “making every effort” to secure the release of hostages and is willing “to go a long way” to achieve that goal.
