Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, on Tuesday.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
Israeli ground troops crossed into southern Lebanon on Tuesday, marking yet another escalation in a region-wide war that also saw the U.S. and Israel continue to pound targets in Iran.
Iran countered Tuesday by hitting the U.S. embassy in Riyadh with a drone, forcing Washington to close it and its embassy in Kuwait City, which was hit Monday. A fire later broke out at the U.S. consulate in Dubai, which local authorities said was caused by another drone strike.
Local health authorities said at least 787 Iranians – including the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and at least 52 Lebanese have been killed in fighting that has rippled across the Middle East since Saturday, when the United States and Israel launched their initial attack on Iran. Six U.S. soldiers and 11 Israelis have been killed over the past four days.
Lebanese resign themselves to another war as Israel deploys troops to southern Lebanon
Iran’s response for the most part has targeted U.S. military bases and allies around the region, including the Gulf monarchies of Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Tehran also declared Monday that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, with a senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatening to fire on any ship that tries to pass through the strait.
The UAE alone said it had been targeted with more than 1,000 missiles and drones since Saturday. The vast majority were shot down by air defences, though videos posted to social media appear to show a fire at the Fujairah Oil Terminal, which plays a vital role in the region’s oil exports. Prices of oil and natural gas have both spiked since the start of the conflict.
U.S. President Donald Trump – who said he ordered Saturday’s attack to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons – wrote on social media Tuesday that it was now “too late!” for negotiations to bring the spreading war to a halt.
The war between Israel and Iran is widening, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday playing down fears of an "endless" war, while also expanding operations across Tehran, Lebanon and the Gulf.
Reuters
The Israeli incursion into Lebanon appeared to be limited in scope, at least on Tuesday, with monitors from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon recording Israeli troops crossing the border in four locations. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered ground forces “to advance and hold additional dominant terrain in Lebanon” to push the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia farther away and prevent it from targeting communities in northern Israel.
Israel ordered the evacuation of some 80 Lebanese villages near the border, warning residents that their lives would be in danger if they remained in their homes.
The Israeli incursions sent a fresh wave of internally displaced people fleeing from southern Lebanon toward Beirut and the north of the country. The UN refugee agency said nearly 30,000 people had registered at its shelters in Lebanon since the start of hostilities on Monday, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, whom many Shia Muslims considered their spiritual leader.
A map of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes so far
Israel’s response has been fast and ferocious. The southern suburbs of Beirut, which are collectively known as the Dahiya, have been pummelled with almost non-stop air strikes since early Monday, with Israel targeting what it said were Hezbollah command posts and weapon depots.
The Beirut studios of the Hezbollah-run Al-Manar, a television channel, were also targeted, as were multiple branches of a bank that Israel’s military alleged was used to transfer funds between Iran and Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s media office invited international journalists to visit the Dahiya – which has been closed to outsiders since the start of hostilities – on Tuesday afternoon to view the damage, but the tour was called off amid relentless Israeli strikes.
Despite the intense assault, Hezbollah continued to launch volleys of rockets and drones at northern Israel on Tuesday. Israeli media reported that one person had been injured when a rocket launched from Lebanon landed in the Galilee region. Most Israeli casualties have been caused by more powerful ballistic missiles launched from Iran.
The site of an Israeli strike on a building that houses Al-Manar TV offices in Beirut's southern suburbs, on Tuesday.Stringer/Reuters
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Monday that Hezbollah’s decision to launch its initial attack on Israel was illegal and called for his country’s security services to disarm the militia. There was no sign of that happening Tuesday, and the lightly armed Lebanese army withdrew from at least seven positions in southern Lebanon ahead of the Israeli advance.
It’s the second time in 15 months that Israel and Hezbollah have traded blows while Lebanon’s government and army have looked on helplessly. The 2024 war ended with more than 4,000 civilians dead, entire villages in south Lebanon destroyed and Hezbollah badly weakened.
Mahmoud Qmati, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, said that “open war” had once more begun, after a wobbly ceasefire that he accused Israel of having violated daily by not withdrawing from the five slivers of Lebanese territory it continued to occupy after the end of the war.
In an apparent attempt to address the anger many Lebanese, including some in the country’s Shia community, have expressed over Hezbollah’s decision to take the country to war again, Mr. Qmati said Israel “didn’t need a pretext” to attack Lebanon and that the conflict “was going to happen sooner or later.”
Radiya Zorkot is taking refuge at the Bir Hassan Technical Institute in Beirut, having fled from her village, Zrariyeh.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
At Beirut’s Bir Hassan Technical Institute – which was converted over the past two days into a receiving centre for internal refugees – it was plain that open war had indeed begun. By late Tuesday, more than 1,800 people from the Dahiya and southern Lebanon were crammed into the five-storey building. The classrooms were jammed with internally displaced persons, forcing entire families to sleep in the hallways.
Radiya Zorkot fled her home village of Zrariyeh, about 25 kilometres north of the Israeli border, shortly after she received a WhatsApp message at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning warning residents of Zrariyeh to evacuate.
Ms. Zorkot, 50, said she could hear explosions behind her as a bus took her and other residents north toward Beirut. “The moment we left, they struck,” she said, sitting on a metal chair outside the college, clutching a plastic bag stuffed with her purse, some medicines and a change of clothes.
Like many of those arriving at the converted college, Ms. Zorkot had taken refuge in the same building less than two years ago. Some had only just finished rebuilding their homes and lives after the last war.
Mohammad Hussein Aboud sits with his wife and son in the corridor of the Bir Hassan Technical Institute.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
“We left our land, we left our work,” said Mohammad Hussein Aboud, a 64-year-old farmer who spent three months repairing the damage to his home after the 2024 war. On Tuesday, he was sitting in the hallway of the college with his wife and their eight-month-old son. “I don’t know what’s happened to my home this time.”
Haider Baddah, head of the Al-Rissala Scouts organization, which was trying to provide services to those fleeing the fighting, said conditions for internal refugees were worse than during the last round of fighting.
In 2024, international assistance from countries such as Iran and Qatar allowed Al-Rissala to provide food, water and other necessities throughout the two-month duration of the war. This time, supplies were already running low just two days in, with Lebanon just one front among many.
“Last time, there was a lot of services – we had blankets, we had food, we had everything,” said Shahinaz Khalil, a 45-year-old widow who was bedding down in the hallway of the college, though with only two mattresses for her and her three children. “This time we’re forgotten. This time the war is in Iran, the Gulf, everywhere.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct Mohammad Hussein Aboud's name.