Israel strikes Tehran, Beirut as US warns bombardments over Iran to 'surge dramatically'
Hezbollah said on Friday (Mar 6) that Israel's "aggression" would not go unchallenged.
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JERUSALEM: Heavy attacks were reported in Tehran on Friday (Mar 6) after Israel said it was hitting "regime infrastructure" in a "new phase" of the war it launched with the United States against Iran.
As the conflict entered its seventh day, its regional repercussions continued - with Qatar saying it intercepted a drone targeting a US base, and Lebanon reporting the death toll from Israeli strikes had risen to 123.
Israel's military chief had earlier warned the US-Israeli campaign was moving to "the next phase" and would "further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities".
"We have additional surprises ahead which I do not intend to disclose," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a televised statement.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced that "firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically".
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had fired missiles towards Tel Aviv after an earlier wave of explosions that caused a blaze at a residential building in the central Israeli city.
AFP journalists heard two near-simultaneous waves of explosions in Tel Aviv late Thursday, while rocket trails also lit up the sky in Netanya, further north.
EVACUATIONS IN BEIRUT
The conflict has drawn in Israel's neighbour Lebanon after Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched missiles in retaliation for the war.
Israel has carried out waves of air strikes in Lebanon, killing 123 people, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes after warnings from Israel that they were at risk, with a mass exodus from Beirut's southern suburbs leaving the area "almost empty", the official National News Agency said Thursday.
The Dahiyeh suburb is considered a Hezbollah stronghold and home to an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people from all walks of life.
On a Beirut beach, hundreds of families, many of them scared and angry, milled around after fleeing in haste, having nowhere else to go.
"We fled from the suburbs, we were humiliated," one man told AFP, declining to give his name. "We'll sleep on the road tonight and God alone knows what will happen to us."
With residents of the southern suburbs pouring into Beirut and Mount Lebanon, the government's Disaster Management Unit called on the displaced to head toward the east and north of the country, after closer shelters reached full capacity.
"Very soon Dahiyeh will resemble Khan Younis," far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Telegram, referring to the Gaza city devastated by Israeli bombing in the war triggered by Hamas's Oct 7, 2023, attack.
In a post on X, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that "large areas of Beirut's southern suburbs have been ordered to evacuate while people are still fleeing south Lebanon in large numbers".
"The country is living a new nightmare, but no side can impose a lasting solution by force."
HEZBOLLAH WARNS ISRAELIS ALONG BORDER
Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5km of the countries' shared border in a message posted on its Telegram channel in Hebrew early on Friday.
"Your military's aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged," Hezbollah said.
Israel has said it will not evacuate its border towns and has sent more soldiers into Lebanon, saying this was a defensive measure meant to protect its citizens who live nearby.
INTERNET BLACKOUT IN IRAN
In Iran, an internet blackout has limited information on how the country's population is weathering the assault.
Internet connectivity is running at around 1 per cent of usual levels, according to monitor group Netblocks, while authorities have warned people against using VPNs.
In Tehran, there were a few signs of normal life on Thursday: children playing with a balloon, a father accompanying his daughter as she rode a small four-wheel bike.
But, plainclothes security officials were also out in force.
An engineer living in Tehran said security forces "roam the streets on their own, creating fear and intimidation, checking people's phones, going through them, and harassing people".
And Ugandan student Oscar Nyegyema, arriving home at Entebbe after being evacuated from Tehran, described sheer terror as strikes shook the city.
"We could hear the ground trembling; we could hear the ground shake. We were all scared, we were all feeling devastated; we really did not know whether we could make it out," he said.
Iran has retaliated against Israel and targets in neighbouring Gulf countries, including Qatar, which said its air defences thwarted a drone attack targeting the US airbase at Al-Udeid.
Bahrain said early Friday that Iran had targeted a hotel and two residential buildings in the capital, but that there was "no loss of life", while Saudi Arabia said it intercepted three ballistic missiles.
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