After firing on northern Israel, Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli army base in response to the \u201ccriminal Israeli aggression that targeted dozens of Lebanese cities and towns, including the southern suburbs of Beirut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hezbollah also claimed to have downed an Israeli drone and fired at Israeli Merkava tanks near the Lebanese villages of Kfar Shouba and Kfarkela.<\/p>\n
\t A senior Hezbollah official said that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire as Israel\u2019s strikes continued on Lebanon, the group\u2019s patience has ended, leaving it with no option but to fight Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,\u201d Mohamoud Komati said. \u201cSo let it be an open war.\u201d<\/p>\n Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, France and Egypt on Tuesday that Hezbollah has been firing rockets from areas north of the Litani River, outside an area south of the river and along the border with Israel, where Lebanese troops have earlier said they are in full control.<\/p>\n Israel says \u2018no safe place\u2019 for Iran in Lebanon<\/p>\n In response to the attacks, the Israeli military issued an unusual threat against Iranian regime officials in Lebanon, warning that they will be targeted if they do not leave the country within 24 hours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IDF warns representatives of the Iranian terror regime who are still in Lebanon to leave immediately before being targeted,\u201d said army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IDF warns that it will not tolerate any presence of representatives of the Iranian terror regime in Lebanon and will grant regime representatives currently in Lebanon 24 hours to leave the country,\u201d Adraee said. \u201cAfter that, there will be no safe place for representatives of the Iranian regime in Lebanon, and the IDF will target them wherever they are found.\u201d<\/p>\n The warning came as Israel carried out airstrikes around Lebanon. The IDF said the Israeli Air Force had carried out a wave of airstrikes against some 60 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n \t According to the IDF, the strikes targeted weapon depots, missile launchers, command centers, and other infrastructure belonging to the Lebanese terror group.<\/p>\n The military said it struck several \u201ccentral\u201d sites belonging to Hezbollah and the Hamas terror group in Sidon and Tyre.<\/p>\n \u201cThe infrastructure sites were used by the terror organizations to advance and carry out various terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians,\u201d the IDF said.<\/p>\n Before carrying out the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings for Lebanese civilians in the area.<\/p>\n Hezbollah ally Al-Jama\u2019a al-Islamiyya said its command center in Sidon was targeted by Israel, after the IDF told people to flee the area within 300 meters (328 yards) of a building in the coastal Lebanese city.<\/p>\n The IDF also issued an evacuation warning for buildings in the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre and three villages in southern Lebanon, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure. The IDF has in total warned the residents of more than 80 villages in Lebanon to evacuate.<\/p>\n In other strikes, the IDF said it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher in Lebanon used in a barrage on the Golan Heights. According to the military, the launcher was hit in a drone strike within minutes of the barrage of some 15 rockets.<\/p>\n The IDF also said that a drone strike killed a Hezbollah operative, alongside several other members of the terror group, who fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, near the village of Arnoun.<\/p>\n \u201cHezbollah made a very big mistake when it attacked us,\u201d Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to the Palmachim Airbase with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.<\/p>\n \t \u201cWe have already responded forcefully, and we will respond with even greater and additional force,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war \u201csolely because of the death of that mass murderer with whom they have no connection,\u201d Netanyahu said, referring to Iran\u2019s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need to look out for themselves, and they would do well to do so quickly. We will continue to do what is necessary for our defense,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n Officials in Lebanon said at least 50 people had been killed in the airstrikes and 335 wounded, alongside tens of thousands who were displaced.<\/p>\n The IDF said it had sent additional troops into southern Lebanon<\/a> and took new positions on several strategic points close to the border.<\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its border positions.<\/p>\n Also, in Tehran, an Israeli airstrike killed Daoud Alizadeh, the acting commander of the Lebanon Corps in Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 Quds Force, the IDF said.<\/p>\n Alizadeh had taken responsibility for the IRGC Quds Force\u2019s Lebanon Corps from Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Damascus in April 2024, making him \u201cthe highest-ranking Iranian commander responsible for Lebanon,\u201d according to the military.<\/p>\n Syria bolsters border as thousands flee<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp_Image_2026-02-18_at_12.21.33.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tTroops of the 300th \u2018Baram\u2019 Regional Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued by the military on February 25, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26062198756848-e1772586994530.jpg\")
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\n\t\tSmoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hussein Malla)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Image-from-iOS-10.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Palmachim Air Base on March 3, 2026. (Ma\u2019ayan Toaf\/GPO)<\/p>\n
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