Netanyahu warns Iran as Israel continues strikes in Lebanon
Israel's prime minister issued a warning to Iran, just days after an airstrike south of Beirut killed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which is backed by Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach”. Later Monday, officials in Washington confirmed Israeli troops were conducting small raids across the border in Lebanon, but provided no details.
Hezbollah's acting leader promised the group will fight on following the death Friday of its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israel has also assassinated several of the group's top commanders in recent days. Naim Kassem said in a televised statement that if Israel launches a ground offensive, the group's fighters are ready. He said the commanders killed have already been replaced.
An airstrike early Monday hit an apartment building in central Beirut - the first to hit in the heart of the Lebanese capital in nearly a year of conflict - and killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist Palestinian faction. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building on a busy, shop-lined thoroughfare in a mainly Sunni district.
Another Israeli airstrike early Monday killed six people, including two sisters and a child, in central Gaza, Palestinian officials said.