Fresh Israeli strikes hit Gaza, Beirut

Israel bombed targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Sunday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks that sparked its war, as Israel's defence minister declared all options were open for retaliation against arch-enemy Iran.

Hizbollah rockets launched late on Sunday got past Israeli air defence systems and landed in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, causing damage to buildings, police said. Israeli media reported 10 people wounded in rocket strikes in Haifa and the city of Tiberias.

Hizbollah said it had targeted a military site south of Haifa with a salvo of "Fadi 1" missiles.

Israeli air strikes battered Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hizbollah last month. Large fireballs lit the darkened skyline and booms reverberated across Beirut.

The Israeli military said fighter jets struck targets in Beirut belonging to Hizbollah's Intelligence headquarters and weapons storage facilities. It said strikes also targeted Hizbollah in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area.

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Gaza. Reuters

Hamas-led fighters launched rockets into Israel from Gaza at the start of the Oct. 7 attacks last year.

The Hamas attacks that day killed 1,200 people and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. They provoked an Israeli offensive in Gaza that has laid waste the densely populated coastal enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

On the eve of the anniversary, pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested against Israel around the world from Jakarta to Istanbul and Rabat after rallies in major European capitals, Washington and New York on Saturday.

Iran launched a missile attack on Israel last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, where Hizbollah and Hamas fighters are Tehran's allies in a so-called Axis of Resistance.

Official Lebanese media reported four Israeli strikes on south Beirut Sunday, shortly after calls by Israel's army for residents to evacuate the Hizbollah stronghold which has been bombarded for several days.

Flames and smoke rise from buildings after an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, early on Monday. AP

"Enemy warplanes launched two strikes on the southern suburbs, the first targeted the Saint Therese area, and the second targeted the Burj al-Barajneh area," Lebanon's National News Agency said.

The NNA later reported two additional strikes, including one it described as "violent".

One AFP correspondent said her windows shook after one of the strikes, while another reporter heard loud explosions.

AFP live video footage captured four strikes, two of them triggering big explosions with flaming flares shooting out of thick black smoke.

An Israeli military statement issued overnight Sunday to Monday said the IDF had "struck Hizbollah terrorist targets and weapons storage facilities in Beirut".

Israeli warplanes hit targets belonging to Hizbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut, the statement added.

They had also hit "Hizbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Beirut", reporting secondary explosions after the strikes "indicating the presence of weaponry".

Earlier on Sunday evening, Israel military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an "urgent warning to the residents of the southern suburb of Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath" to leave these areas.

Smoke rises from a burnt shop hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday. AP

"You are located near Hizbollah facilities and interests, and the IDF (Israeli military) will operate against them in the near future," he added in a statement on X.

In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the southern suburbs were hit by more than 30 strikes, the NNA said, in one of the most intense barrages yet.

Lebanon's Hizbollah movement and its foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for nearly a year in fallout from the Gaza war.

But since September 23, Israel has launched devastating air strikes on targets in Lebanon that have killed more than 1,110 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes.

Israel last week killed Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in south Beirut, a densely populated area before residents fled Israel's intensifying bombardment.

Agencies