Israel batters suburbs of Beirut, targeting Hezbollah amid war with Iran
Smoke rises from Dahieh as the Israeli Army bombs the area after issuing a forced evacuation order in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 5, 2026. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(BEIRUT) — Intense bombardments continue to hit the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, as Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah in a wave of attacks that began midnight local time Friday.
At least 217 people have been killed and 798 others have been wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon that began early Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck Hezbollah command centers and multi-story structures in Beirut overnight. An ABC News crew on the ground observed nearly two dozen missile strikes hitting Dahiyeh alone.
A number of buildings were seen collapsing in this wave of strikes on Friday as the death toll continues to rise, an ABC News team in Lebanon observed.
The IDF said it attacked more than 500 targets in Lebanon, killing more than 70 Hezbollah members, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said at a briefing on Friday.
“Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are one. They continue to destroy the state of Lebanon and harm the lives of Lebanese residents,” he said.
Hezbollah responded with several rockets headed south toward Israel overnight, an ABC News team in Lebanon observed.
The latest wave of strikes followed a warning by the IDF to anyone south of the Litani River in Lebanon to evacuate. The IDF warned everyone living in Dahiyeh on Thursday afternoon to evacuate the neighborhood ahead of pending military strikes.
Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee Dahiyeh, according to Lebanese officials.
Overnight, families who fled the neighborhood were seen lighting fires for warmth. Some had tents while others were forced to sleep on the streets with blankets, ABC News observed.
The Lebanese government is actively engaging with intermediaries, including the French and the American ambassador, to try and put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the bombardments, according to Lebanese officials.
Israeli forces have said that they are stepping up their military campaign against Hezbollah infrastructure and leadership in Dahiyeh.
Ahead of the attack on Iran, Israel launched strikes against targets in Baalbek, east Lebanon, in February, saying it killed “several” members of Hezbollah’s missile unit in three different locations.
This week’s strikes were the first time Israel struck Beirut, in central Lebanon, since June 2025.
The Israeli military warned Tuesday that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price” after the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel overnight Monday into Tuesday.
Immediately after the rocket fire, the IDF “launched a large-scale attack against Hezbollah terrorist targets throughout Lebanon, including Beirut,” according to Defrin.
“We attacked dozens of the organization’s headquarters and launch sites,” Defrin said. “We attacked senior commanders. Some of the last surviving senior veterans of this organization. We are currently examining the results of the attack.”
Defrin noted that “forces are deployed along the border in front and are prepared to continue the defense and attack as long as they require.”
A huge banner displayed in Revolution Square depicts a missile attack on board a US Carrier painted in US flag colors in the Persian Gulf on January 26, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Iranian military forces are prepared to “immediately” retaliate against any U.S. attack, Tehran’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday, as more American military assets arrived in the region and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to launch a new attack on the country.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post to X on Wednesday that Iran’s “brave Armed Forces are prepared — with their fingers on the trigger — to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air and sea.”
“Valuable lessons learned” during the 12-day conflict with Israel and the U.S. in June “have enabled us to respond even more strongly, rapidly and profoundly,” Araghchi wrote.
“At the same time, Iran has always welcomed a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable NUCLEAR DEAL — on equal footing, and free from coercion, threats, and intimidation — which ensures Iran’s rights to PEACEFUL nuclear technology, and guarantees NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS,” the foreign minister added.
“Such weapons have no place in our security calculations and we have NEVER sought to acquire them,” he wrote.
Araghchi issued the warning after Trump touted what he called a “massive armada” heading toward Iran, which he said was “ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”
Trump urged Iran to make “a fair and equitable deal” regarding its nuclear program, key facilities and personnel of which were among the targets attacked by Israel and the U.S. in June.
“Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!,” Trump said a social media post.
Trump referred to the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites last summer. “As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again,” Trump added.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by three destroyers, arrived in the Middle East earlier this week, bolstering the U.S. military presence in the region.
The carrier is carrying a complement of strike aircraft, while the accompanying destroyers are armed with Tomahawk missiles.
The naval buildup adds some 5,000 American troops to the region, swelling an already robust American military footprint spread across multiple bases across the Middle East, such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
In total, more than 30,000 U.S. troops are deployed across the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln is the first U.S. aircraft carrier to operate in the region since last summer.
Araghchi on Wednesday denied any request for new talks Tehran and Washington, D.C., though said Iran was in touch with “various intermediaries.”
“Our position is clear. Negotiations cannot take place under threats, and any talks must be conducted in conditions where threats and excessive demands are set aside,” Araghchi said.
The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Thursday that Iran is “ready for sincere and genuine negotiations with America,” as quoted by the state-aligned Tasnim News Agency. Ghalibaf warned that though Trump “may be able to start a war,” he cannot foresee how it will end.
Trump’s latest threats focused on Iran’s nuclear program, which — alongside Tehran’s ballistic missile arsenal and its use of regional proxy forces — has been a key and longstanding concern for the U.S., Israel and their regional partners.
Trump’s Wednesday social media post did not mention Tehran’s bloody suppression of nationwide anti-government protests over the past month. The demonstrations began in late December in response to the collapsing value of the national currency — the rial — before morphing into a wider anti-regime movement which drew backing from dissidents abroad and Western governments.
Trump lent his support to protesters in mid-January, urging them to “KEEP PROTESTING — TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” He added, “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
The president then appeared to back off the prospect of imminent U.S. strikes on Iran, saying Tehran had informed him that the killing of protesters and executions of those arrested had stopped.
The major security crackdown appears to have suppressed the massed demonstrations. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) — which relies on a network of activists in Iran for its reporting and has been accurate during previous unrest — said Wednesday that at least 6,373 people had been killed in the protests.
The dead included 5,993 protesters, 113 people under the age of 18, 214 government-affiliated personnel and 53 non-protesting civilians, HRANA said. The organization said it is still reviewing 17,091 reports of other deaths.
A total of 42,486 people have been arrested in the demonstrations since they began on Dec. 28, including 11,018 injured protesters with serious wounds, according to HRANA.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the U.S. regional buildup represents a “baseline” for defense.
“We have to have enough force and power in the region just on a baseline to defend against that possibility that at some point, as a result of something, the Iranian regime decides to strike at our troop presence in the region,” Rubio said.
Rubio also said that it was an “open question” and “no one knows” who would fill a leadership void in Iran if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was removed from power.
Rubio asserted that protests across Iran due to a free-falling economy show “that [the] regime is probably weaker than it has ever been.”
If the regime were to fall, he said the U.S. could “hope” for a “transition” like the one it is attempting to facilitate in Venezuela.
But Rubio added that he “would imagine it would be far more complex … because you’re talking about a regime that’s been in place for a very long time.”
(NEW YORK) — Two people are dead from a shooting in the Cree First Nation community of Mistissini in northern Quebec, Canada, officials said, adding that it is not considered an active shooter situation.
Two men in their 30s who live in the Mistissini community were found fatally shot in a car overnight, according to Hugues Beaulieu, a spokesperson for Quebec’s provincial police, the Sureté du Québec.
Although no arrest has been made, there is no active threat to the general population, Beaulieu told ABC News, explaining that police are working under the theory that the murders were related to organized crime and drug trade.
The community’s chief, Michael Petawabano, said earlier that all schools and community buildings were closed and residents were advised to remain in their homes.
The remote town has a population of roughly 4,000 people.
“Our hearts are heavy with grief for the lives lost and the families affected by this tragedy,” Petawabano said in a statement. “We ask all community members to remain calm, stay indoors, and cooperate fully with police as they conduct their investigation.”
“The lockdown will remain in effect until law enforcement confirms it is safe to resume normal activities,” Petawabano said.
Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, takes part in the Munich Security Conference. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russian forces could recover their pre-war capabilities within three to five years in the event of a peace deal in Ukraine, according to Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of the NATO Military Committee and the principal military adviser to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“They will be busy on that battlefield for as long as is necessary — we hope very, very shortly that it will come to a point. Right after that, I think that they will rebuild,” Dragone told ABC News during an interview on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank’s Security and Defense 2026 event in London on Wednesday.
“We are expecting a strong, resilient — because they demonstrate that now they are resilient — conventional force,” Dragone said of the Russian military NATO is preparing to face down along its eastern flank in the years and decades to come.
This week marked the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, a so-called “special military operation” — in the words of the Kremlin — that Russian officials expected to succeed within days.
The opening stages of the war were characterized by Russian tactical and strategic failures, ultimately prompting Russian forces to abandon swaths of territory captured in the north, northeast and south of the country.
“Their capabilities were way below what we expected at the very beginning,” Dragone said. “But in four years, they reconstituted. They lost a lot of soldiers, but they are able to reconstitute, rebuild and recruit again,” the NATO commander continued. “They are a force which is experienced and trying to modernize as much as they can.”
Four years on, Russia is still struggling to make significant gains and is — according to a mix of Ukrainian, Western and independent analysis — sustaining massive casualties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to frame Moscow’s grinding advance as inevitable, and demanded that Kyiv cede the entire eastern Donbas — made up of Luhansk and Donetsk regions — as part of any future peace deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his foreign backers, though, have challenged the characterization, pointing to Russia’s slow progress, mounting casualties and apparent economic strains.
Asked whether one side has the upper hand, Dragone said Russia is making “small gains on the terrain compared to the losses. In November-December, they had 35,000 casualties. This means that for one kilometer, they are losing thousands” of troops killed and badly wounded, Dragone said.
“This is something that they can handle — I don’t know up to when,” he continued. “That’s something that their system allows them to do.”
“They are not winning, except for these small gains,” Dragone said. “It’s an oxymoron to call something a ‘special military operation’ that lasts for five years. It’s nonsense, from the very beginning.”
“They will not be able, at this pace, to conquer the whole of Donbas, for example, by the end of this year,” Dragone said. “They are fighting this attrition war that is not leading anybody anywhere. And this is why it should be time that they sit and they start to find a negotiated solution.”
Moscow says different, though the glacial pace of its invasion is evident. Daily, the Defense Ministry in Moscow claims to have captured new settlements, villages and towns in the so-called “grey zone” all along the 750-mile line of contact. In December, Putin again claimed that his troops were “advancing on all fronts.”
The Kremlin appears fully committed to its war, marshalling the national economy onto war footing and further tightening its authoritarian grip on Russian society.
Moscow’s war-focused economic strategy “means something,” Dragone said. “More than 40% of the national budget is for the war,” he added. “Probably they will keep the war economy even after the war ends, just to rebuild this as soon as possible.”
Russia may seek to generate a military force of “150% of what they had when they invaded Ukraine, because from their point of view, they have to cope with their counterpart, which is NATO,” Dragone said. In the meantime, the admiral added, “They are testing us, of course. In these four years, they have been testing us on our reaction times, how we are able to respond.”
Dragone also acknowledged that Russia is already engaged in a hybrid war against its NATO adversaries. Allied leaders have accused Moscow of a wide range of surveillance, sabotage, assassination and other operations within NATO borders. Meanwhile, Russian drones and missiles targeting Ukraine have also violated the airspace of allied nations.
“We have been reacting” to the hybrid threat, Dragone said, noting that NATO nations have moral, ethical and legal “restraints” that do not bind Moscow.
“This is an unfair confrontation that we need to be ready to face. And this is what we could call a handicap situation, but that’s something that we want to be in place,” he added, stressing that the alliance should not seek to shed such restraints.
“They are more aggressive,” Dragone said. “We are reacting. Our reactions are appropriate. The issue is that we are a defensive alliance, so that’s our mindset.”
Asked whether NATO has been too hesitant, the admiral said such strategic decisions are made at the political level. “It’s up to them to tell us, give us the political direction, what effect they want to have — and we will be the ones who will produce this effect.”
Growing NATO-Russia tensions have, at times, prompted nuclear threats from Moscow. This week, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused Kyiv — without providing proof — of trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the assistance of the U.K. and France. Ukraine quickly denied the allegation.
Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving on the country’s Security Council — then threatened a “symmetrical response” from Russia using “any type of weapon, including non-strategic nuclear weapons.”
Dragone said that, though NATO remains “concerned” about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, “nothing has changed.”
