Israel strikes Lebanon after discussing "Iranian threat" with Trump
Beirut, Lebanon - Israel launched fresh strikes on south Beirut early Thursday, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president-elect Donald Trump spoke about the "Iranian threat."
The Israeli premier was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, calling the re-election "history's greatest comeback."
Over the phone on Wednesday, the pair "agreed to work together for Israel's security" and "discussed the Iranian threat," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Not long afterwards, the Israeli military launched its latest strikes on south Beirut, with AFP footage showing orange flashes and plumes of smoke over the densely populated suburb.
The Israeli army had issued evacuation orders ahead of the strikes, calling on people to leave four neighborhoods, including one near the international airport.
In Lebanon's east, the country's health ministry said Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed 40 people, with rescuers combing the rubble for survivors.
"The series of Israeli enemy strikes on the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek" killed "40 people and injured 53," the ministry said in a statement.
In a televised speech recorded before Trump's victory but aired afterwards, new Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said: "We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants" ready to fight. "What will stop this... war is the battlefield."
Qassem, who became Hezbollah secretary-general last week, warned that nowhere in Israel would be "off-limits."
Hezbollah announced Wednesday it had Iran-made Fatah 110 missiles, a weapon with a 186-mile range that military expert Riad Kahwaji described as the group's "most accurate."
The group claimed a slew of attacks on Israel on Wednesday, including two that targeted naval bases near the Israeli city of Haifa and two near commercial hub Tel Aviv.
Israel escalated its air raids on south Lebanon, the capital Beirut, and the eastern Bekaa Valley from September 23, sending in ground troops a week later.
Israel has killed at least 3,050 people in Lebanon in just over a year, the health ministry said Wednesday.
Trump's return
Efforts to end the Gaza genocide and neighboring Lebanon have so far repeatedly failed, as Washington has sustained its political and military backing of Israel. Trump's White House return is not expected to shift that dynamic, and some believe it may accelerate the destruction.
All US presidents "are in favor of the State of Israel," a man in east Jerusalem told AFP, asking to be identified only by his nickname Abu Mohammed.
Under Trump, "nothing will change except more decline."
During his campaign, Trump touted himself as Israel's strongest ally, going so far as to say Biden should let Israel "finish the job" in Gaza.
"Trump's return to power... will lead us to hell and there will be a greater and more difficult escalation," said a school principal in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Recent surveys have shown that a majority of Israelis, 66% according to one conducted by Israel's Channel 12 News, were hoping to see Trump triumph. Analysts said Netanyahu also wanted Trump's return, given their longstanding personal friendship and the American's hawkishness on Iran.
During his first term in office, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and helped normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.
Palestinian suffering continues
Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel and one of the mediators in the stymied Gaza truce talks, also congratulated Trump.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told Trump in a call that Cairo would work with him "to contribute to stability, peace and development in the Middle East."
In Gaza, where Israel has forcibly displaced most residents, caused widespread hunger and death, and devastated hospitals, some clung to hope with a change in the US administration.
"There's nothing left for us, we want peace," said 60-year-old Mamdouh al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.
The UN said Wednesday its polio vaccination campaign in Gaza had ended, with more than half a million children vaccinated despite the relentless attacks.
Israel has killed at least 43,391 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to figures from the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July.
Cover photo: Fadel ITANI / AFP