The Israeli military confirmed on Monday that it carried out a precision strike against a high-ranking Hezbollah operative in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Defence Minister Israel Katz subsequently declared on X that the Iran-backed group's leader, Naim Qassem, had become "a marked target for elimination", signalling a significant escalation in hostilities.
Lebanese health authorities reported that Israeli bombardments across Lebanon had claimed at least 31 lives and left 149 people injured on Monday. The strikes followed a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire, prompting the Israeli military to warn of intensified operations. Military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin stated during a televised briefing that Israel would "increasingly strike the key elements of the regime and continue to intensify the damage" in its campaign against Iran.
Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir cautioned that the offensive against Hezbollah, launched early on Monday, could extend for a prolonged period. "We must be prepared for several days of fighting, many," Zamir said in a video released by the armed forces, hours after Hezbollah-claimed rocket attacks triggered the wave of retaliatory strikes on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, fresh attacks struck a military installation in Iraq housing the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah faction, while air defence systems in the Kurdish city of Erbil intercepted incoming drone assaults. Explosions were also reported across Gulf nations, with the cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama all affected as Iran's army confirmed it had deployed 15 cruise missiles targeting a US air base in Kuwait and naval vessels in the Indian Ocean.
France declared its readiness to defend Gulf states and Jordan against Iranian aggression if required, according to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. Iran had launched successive missile and drone barrages at several Gulf nations, claiming to be striking US installations, following US-Israeli missile attacks from Saturday that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Barrot expressed "full support and complete solidarity" with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan, noting that an estimated 400 000 French citizens were residing in or visiting the region.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning what they termed Iran's "reckless attacks" on their close allies, which they said threatened military personnel and civilians throughout the region. The three nations warned they would "take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran's capability to fire missiles and drones at their source".
