“A TEST”
Netanyahu’s office said that the Israeli military had “carried out strikes in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut against terrorist targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, in response to Hezbollah’s firing toward Israeli territory”.
Israel’s military said it had “precisely struck” a Hezbollah infrastructure site in Dahiyeh.
Two far-right Israeli ministers earlier Sunday had called for retaliatory strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“The shooting at northern communities is a test of the Dahiyeh Doctrine that the prime minister declared. I call on him to implement it decisively and firmly, and to bring down buildings in Dahiyeh,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X.
“For every drone – a missile; for every violation – fire; for every UAV – Dahiyeh must tremble,” wrote National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on X.
Israel’s military also struck Beirut’s southern suburbs last Sunday, hitting apartments in two buildings after saying it had intercepted rockets launched by Hezbollah into Israeli territory.
Iran launched missiles towards Israel in response to that attack, triggering Israeli retaliatory strikes before both sides halted fire.
Iran had repeatedly warned it would strike Israel if the Lebanese capital was targeted.
On Sunday, Lebanon’s NNA reported Israeli strikes on more than a dozen locations in the country’s south, both before and after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for almost 30 locations ahead of strikes there.
Israel’s military activity in recent days has been focused on the region around the major south Lebanon city of Nabatieh, and many of Sunday’s Israeli army evacuation warning locations were north of the city.