As Israel broadens the scope of its attacks in Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Naïm Qassem said on Wednesday that he was determined to “face” the Jewish state. The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders on Thursday targeting a suburb of Beirut, before striking targets it claims to be linked to Hezbollah.
Published on: 03/05/2026 - 01:15 Modified on: 03/05/2026 - 08:21
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah are intensifying. The leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement said, Wednesday evening March 4, that he was determined to "face" Israel, whose army entered several border localities in southern Lebanon while continuing the shelling of vast regions of the country, drawn into the regional war.
Hezbollah will face "Israeli-American aggression" and will not surrender, assured its leader Naïm Qassem in a speech broadcast on his party's channel, the first since the start, on Saturday, of the American-Israeli attack against Iran.
To (re)readNaïm Qassem, the “default leader” of Hezbollah, refuses to distance himself from Iran
The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders on Thursday morning targeting a suburb of Beirut, before striking targets it claims to be linked to Hezbollah.
Israel, which is widening the scope of its attacks in Lebanon, ordered all residents of part of the South to evacuate on Wednesday, while Lebanese authorities recorded 72 deaths and 83,000 displaced people since Monday.
The Israeli army announced Wednesday evening that it had struck numerous positions of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, supported by Iran, in the southern area of Lebanon, south of the Litani River.
Three people were killed in two Israeli strikes targeting two cars on the airport road near Beirut, Lebanese authorities said Wednesday evening.
“Direct” confrontations
Lebanon was drawn into war on Monday after a first attack against Israel by the Shiite movement, which claimed to want to "avenge" the death of Iranian guide Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for at least 23 attacks on Israel on Wednesday, including one using drones against Israeli aerospace industries in the center of the country, targeting for the first time a region so far from the border. He also said he had targeted a military base in the north of the country with a “precision missile”.
Read alsoLebanon: anger against Hezbollah and its “self-destructive suicidal logic” against Israel
In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah reported for the first time "direct" clashes with Israeli soldiers who entered the village of Khiam, six kilometers from the border with Israel.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced that it had observed “several movements and military activities of the Israeli army” in border towns including Khiam.
Videos from Agence France-Presse (AFP) show two Israeli tanks advancing into residential areas of this village.
The Israeli army, for its part, announced that it had deployed soldiers “in several positions” in southern Lebanon, with “infantry, armored and engineering” units.
At the same time, the Israeli army asked residents to evacuate a large area in southern Lebanon, between the border with Israel and the Litani River, around 30 kilometers further north.
The scope of strikes expanded
The Israeli air force expanded the scope of its strikes, targeting for the first time a hotel in Hazmieh, a Christian suburb of Beirut close to the presidential palace and numerous diplomatic missions.
AFP images showed the Comfort hotel building with some rooms gutted, and injured people receiving treatment at reception. It was not possible to know which target was targeted by this attack.
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At the same time, residents of several Lebanese regions told AFP they had received a recorded message on the phone asking them to evacuate, causing panic. AFP was unable to ensure the veracity of these alerts.
One of these calls came to the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, which was briefly closed before it was discovered to be a false alarm, a security official told AFP.
A series of strikes also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on Wednesday morning, after evacuation orders from the Israeli army. One of the strikes targeted a building near a major hospital, according to an AFP photographer.
South of the Lebanese capital, attacks targeted Aramoun and Saadiyat, residential areas that are not part of Hezbollah strongholds.
The strikes also targeted a four-story building in the millennial town of Baalbeck in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Three rescue workers were killed while helping people injured in explosions in the southern Tire district, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The warring parties must respect international humanitarian law and protect health professionals,” he recalled.
With AFP
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