Israel-Hezbollah conflict – latest: Israel strikes Lebanon as Hezbollah says device blasts are ‘act of war’

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has postponed a planned trip next week to Israel due to the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Axios is reporting, citing Israeli sources.

UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy has urged British nationals to leave Lebanon while “commercial options remain”.

He added: “Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.”

Bulgarian broadcaster bTV reported on Thursday that 1.6 million euros connected to the deadly exploding pagers attack in Lebanon passed through Bulgaria and were transferred on to Hungary. It cited sources at the State Agency for National Security.

Bulgarian authorities said on Thursday that their interior ministry and state security services had opened an investigation into a company’s possible ties.

They did not name the company they were investigating. Local media reports said Sofia-based Norta Global Ltd had facilitated the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah.

Israel will keep up military action against Lebanese Hezbollah, though the new phase of fighting does include significant risks, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday.

“In the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue,” Gallant said in a statement.

“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” Gallant said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said he does not want to see any escalatory actions by any party that make a Gaza ceasefire deal even more difficult, adding that he believed a ceasefire remains possible and necessary.

It comes as other world leaders including Emmanuel Macron urge restraint, with the French leader holding phone calls with top political and military leaders from Lebanon.

He also had a separate conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the wave of explosions of pagers and radio devices.

Hezbollah said earlier on Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones.

The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities. Hospitals reported they treated at least eight patients lightly or moderately injured. The military said early on Thursday it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight.

The volley of strikes was a signal by Hezbollah that it would continue its near daily fire, which it says is a show of support for Hamas. Israel’s 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza began after its militants led the October 7 attack on Israel.

Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s fire with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border.

Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, has called on the UN to take a “firm stance” against Israel ahead of a meeting of the UN security council on Friday.

“This matter does not only concern Lebanon but all of humanity,” Mikati said in a statement.

It follows days of escalated tension between the two countries, with thousands injured and 37 killed by booby-trapped radios and pagers that were being used by the militant group Hezbollah.

Explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon this week seriously disrupted its fragile health sector, the World Health Organization chief has said.

The UN health agency cited Lebanese health authorities’ toll that 37 people had been killed and more than 3,000 injured in the pager blasts that detonated in areas considered strongholds of the anti-Israel militant group Hezbollah.

“These events have seriously disrupted Lebanon’s already fragile health system,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, adding that the global body had distributed blood supplies and trauma kits in the country.

“The whole health system came under immense pressure very, very quickly,” said WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan at the same briefing.

WHO’s representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar said 100 hospitals were involved in the response. A series of drills ahead of the attacks and the stockpiling of emergency supplies helped prepare doctors and nurses in advance and limited the casualties, he said.