Millions of Lebanese live in real fear as border clashes escalate and Hezbollah-Israel standoff enters 'new phase'

Hezbollah’s deputy leader signaled the group had entered a “new phase” in its battle against Israel as thousands gathered in Beirut for the funeral of a key commander killed in an airstrike Friday.

The militant group’s second-in-command, Naim Qassem, has vowed to continue rocket attacks in northern Israel with greater intensity until a ceasefire is established. Gaza.

Thousands of people listened to him in the Lebanese capital as he declared Hezbollah entered into an “open score-settling battle” with its neighbor and vowed to hit back at Israel with even greater power and force.

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“Israel “The attacks targeted not only fighters, but also children, ambulance workers, pharmacies, homes and all innocent lives,” he said. “Such actions cannot be justified.”

His harsh rhetoric echoed that of the Israeli prime minister, who promised in a video message: “In the last few days, we have hit Hezbollah with a series of strikes that it had not imagined.

“If Hezbollah has not received the message, I promise you that it will receive it,” Benjamin Netanyahu warned.

“We will do whatever is necessary to restore security” in the north, he said.

Hezbollah is Iran’s most powerful allied militant group and is also an ally of Hamas.

This opened a new front in the war when it began firing rockets into Israel the day after Hamas attacked Israel in October that killed more than 1,000 people and took 250 hostage.

He has repeatedly stated that he will not stop shooting Israel until there is a ceasefire.

Friday’s Israeli airstrikes In Hezbollah’s stronghold of Beirut, Ibrahim Aqil, one of its top military commanders and founder of the elite Radwan force, was killed.

He was a man who had been on the US most wanted list for decades and who Israeli forces said had “the blood of many people on his hands.”

But women sobbed and Hezbollah fighters serving as funeral pallbearers wept as they mourned the loss of a man many loyalists consider a hero.

They chanted slogans of revenge and marched towards the cemetery known as the “martyrs’ cemetery”, professing their loyalty to the group which is a terrorist organisation banned in the US and the UK.

At the same time, further south, LebanonThere were several funerals for civilians – mothers, children, entire families who were killed in the same airstrikes.

They were in one of two residential apartments hit by the strikes.

Israeli forces said the attack targeted the commander and a group of his elite forces who were gathering under one of the buildings. But several civilians, including children, were also killed alongside 16 Hezbollah fighters.

The death toll at the time of writing is over 40.

Real fear after triple attack

The airstrikes in a densely populated part of Beirut follow two days of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members and exploded across the country.

The three attacks in one week appear to have brought the country together in grief and distrust – but there is also a real sense of fear among millions of people across Lebanon.

Yet even as world leaders called for restraint and politicians in the UK and US urged their citizens to leave the country while they still could, Israel and Lebanon stepped up their exchanges along the border.

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Israeli warplanes launched hundreds of airstrikes over the weekend, pounding Lebanese villages in the south, while Hezbollah fired a salvo of long-range rockets reaching the deepest penetration of Israeli territory in nearly a year.

Lebanese government ministers who are not affiliated with Hezbollah have denounced Israel’s actions as “war crimes.”

Its foreign minister said the attacks had created a collective sense that “no one is safe” and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the risk of “turning Lebanon into another Gaza”.

But perhaps the most telling comments came from one of those who attended the commander’s funeral in Beirut.

An 18-year-old student named Hussein told us: “We are at war… it is open war… They (the Israelis) have bombed us three times this week… including with the pager and the walkie-talkie.”

He continued: “You can’t blame us for being negative… they’re bombing us… If you were bombing in Britain or America, you’d say it’s terrorism… We can also say it’s terrorism… we’re being killed, my future is being shattered before my eyes… and I hate it.”

Alex Crawford reports from Beirut with camera crew Jake Britton, producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanese producers Jihad Jneid, Sami Zein and Hwaida Saad