Israel targets Nasrallah 'successor' Safieddine in Beirut attacks as road out of Lebanon bombed

Israel’s Thursday brutal night strikes on Beirut reportedly targeted slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's likely successor Hashem Safieddine, Israeli officials told US news outlets Axios and The New York Times.

The sources claimed that Safieddine attended a meeting with other senior Hezbollah leaders in an underground bunker in the Lebanese capital when Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut.

Israel's military said it targeted intelligence headquarters but did not disclose who was at the underground bunker, as quoted by The Times of Israel. Large explosions were reported in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on Thursday night.

It remains unclear if Safieddine was harmed or killed during the attacks.

Thursday's night strikes were described as among the most intense in Lebanon since Israel escalated attacks over 10 days ago, with around 11 consecutive strikes hitting Beirut, primarily its Shia-majority southern suburbs.

Residents and AFP journalists said the blasts could be heard from beyond the capital, and were so loud that buildings shook and fire alarms went off.

Footage and images shared online showed giant balls of flames rising from the targeted site with thick smoke billowing and flares shooting out.

Iran FM lands in Beirut in diplomatic visit

The following day, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut in a bid to discuss the recent assassinations of top Hezbollah and Hamas officials, including Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh.

Araghchi landed at the capital’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, hours after after strikes hit its vicinity.

The Iranian diplomat’s visit also comes days after Tehran launched retaliatory missiles against Israel, firing some 200 ballistic missiles in response to the killing of Haniyeh and Nasrallah, as well as senior Iranian military personnel.

Araghchi is set to meet Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, according to his schedule.

More deadly Israeli strikes hit Lebanon

The foreign minister's visit comes as Israeli airstrikes killed at least five people in southern Lebanon on Friday morning, local media reported, following a night of intensified strikes on the capital Beirut.

Three Lebanese nationals were killed after an Israeli air strike struck a house in Khirbet Selm, a village in the Nabatieh governorate, the local National News Agency (NNA) said.

Meanwhile, two others were killed in Khiam, also in the Nabatieh governorate, Lebanese outlet L'Orient Le Jour reported.

Israeli attacks continued at night and into the morning, targeting towns and villages in the south, including the Saida and Bint Jbeil districts.

The raids also targeted the town of Al-Bayada in Tyre, in proximity to a Lebanese army centre, which resulted in injuries that were transferred to Tyre's hospitals, NNA said.

An Israeli strike also on Friday near the country’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments, Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater.

The minister said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state.

Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Programme’s country director for Lebanon, told the BBC that the crossing between Syria and Lebanon has been "very significantly bombed" and described the situation as "horrific". 

The Israeli military has not commented on the strike but has previously accused Hezbollah of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.

"The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Over 300,000 people - mostly Syrians -  have fled into Syria after Israeli aggression on Lebanon escalated rapidly over 10 days ago.

Israel imposes more evacuation orders on Lebanese

In a post on X, the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued immediate evacuation orders to people living in 20 villages in south Lebanon, including al-Bas, Majdal Salm and Toulin.

"Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, installations, and combat equipment is putting his life at risk," he said.

Adraee said that civilians must head north of the Awali river, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel, and avoid going any further south "if they want to escape Israeli attacks".

Lebanon's health ministry said on Friday that 37 people had been killed in Israeli strikes the previous day, with at least 151 wounded individuals, the health ministry said.

Israel's aggression on Lebanon comes amid the spillover of Tel Aviv's war on the Gaza Strip, occurring since 7 October last year. More than 1,947 Lebanese have been killed since, most of whom have been died in the last two weeks, with over 9,000 injured.

Nearly 1.2 million civilians have also been displaced since.