Israel has tried at least twice in recent weeks to assassinate Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, according to a report Monday by the Saudi outlet Al Hadath citing an anonymous Israeli source, as Beirut’s southern suburbs braced for an intensified Israeli military campaign.

The disclosure came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had ordered the IDF to step up operations against the Iran-backed terror group. Video circulating on social media showed residents fleeing the Dahiya district in the southern suburbs of Beirut following the announcement.

The Israeli source said the expanded military operation would be limited in duration and that references to operations in Beirut applied to the southern suburbs, not the capital itself. The chief of Israel’s Northern Command was quoted saying the war against Hezbollah would escalate further in the coming days.

A senior American official signaled in a Washington briefing that the United States would back Israeli military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon, N12 correspondent Barak Ravid reported. The official said Hezbollah had ignored repeated requests, including a recent ultimatum, to halt rocket and drone fire at northern Israel.

Qassem succeeded Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024. Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz publicly labeled Qassem a “marked target” following Hezbollah rocket fire that the group said was launched in response to Israel’s killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran. In April, the IDF said it had killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, Qassem’s personal secretary, in a strike on Beirut’s Tallet Khayat neighborhood.

The IDF has said roughly 3,000 projectiles have been fired from southern Lebanon since March 2, undermining the US-brokered ceasefire framework. Hezbollah has rejected calls to disarm, with Qassem describing the group’s arsenal as a domestic Lebanese matter and vowing to “turn it into hell for Israel” if pushed further.

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