Sirens sounded in northern Israel not long after midnight, early on Monday morning. Within hours, explosions rocked the outskirts of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. And a fragile truce was broken.
The Israeli military announced that it had begun striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon early Monday after projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israel. No injuries or damage had been reported, but it was the first such attack since the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024 led to the official end of conflict with Hezbollah, according to Israel’s public broadcaster.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the strikes in a statement, saying it was acting in response to repeated Israeli attacks and to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and a vital patron for the Lebanese militant group. He was killed on Saturday in a strike on his compound in Tehran in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Israel accused Hezbollah of “operating on behalf of the Iranian regime.”
“Hezbollah opened a campaign against Israel overnight, and is fully responsible for any escalation,” Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
Around Beirut, many residents woke up to the sound of explosions around 3 a.m. as the Israeli strikes targeted the southern outskirts of the city in a densely populated commercial and residential area known as the Dahiya, which is a Hezbollah stronghold.
While Israel has regularly attacked southern and eastern Lebanon since reaching a cease-fire with Lebanon that officially ended fighting with Hezbollah in November 2024, the area near the capital has rarely been hit by strikes since the truce went into effect.
The latest attack sent many residents fleeing from the Dahiya into the city, fearing further strikes. The roads leading out of the area were packed with people and cars as residents rushed to leave.
Sally Hijazi, 33, said that after she woke up to the sound of explosions she ran to her 4-year old daughter’s room, picked her up and rushed out of their apartment with her husband. “We didn’t know where to go,” she said.
“I’m so afraid. I don’t know what to do,” Ms. Hijazi added. “They carried out the strikes without any evacuation warnings, nothing at all.”
The Israeli military urged residents in about 50 villages in eastern and southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate their homes to avoid harm as it targeted Hezbollah, warning that those who remained near Hezbollah facilities were putting their lives at risk.
Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on what it says are Hezbollah sites in Lebanon. Just last month, Lebanon’s public health ministry said that at least 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes. Israel’s military said it had targeted Hezbollah command centers in the east of the country.
Nawaf Salam, Lebanon’s prime minister, called the latest launches from Lebanon into Israel “irresponsible,” in a post on social media early on Monday. He said that regardless of the perpetrators, such actions endangered Lebanon’s security and safety and gave Israel reason to attack.
“We will not allow the country to be dragged into new adventures,” he said, adding that Lebanon would take all measures necessary to protect its people. Mr. Salam did not name the militant group Hezbollah in his post, but it came after Israel and Hezbollah both announced that they had launched attacks.
Pranav Baskar and Dayana Iwaza contributed reporting.
Christina Goldbaum is The Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, leading coverage of Lebanon and Syria.
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