Lebanon’s leaders turn on Hezbollah as airstrikes hit Beirut and thousands seek shelter

BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military on Tuesday struck a building housing Hezbollah-aligned Al-Manar channel studios in Beirut’s southern suburbs following an evacuation warning, the channel said. In a statement, the Israeli military said it targeted “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut.”

Following the strike, plumes of smoke were seen billowing over the skyline. No immediate details on casualties were available.

Al-Manar’s headquarters and transmission facilities in Beirut were last struck by Israel during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The renewed airstrikes that began Sunday prompted Lebanese civilians to flee the country's south and Beirut’s southern suburbs Monday, seeking refuge in Lebanon's capital following a new and deadly escalation between Israel and the Iran-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that left more than 50 people dead.

The Hezbollah missile and drone attacks on northern Israel after midnight Sunday triggered waves of Israeli airstrikes and also brought the harshest criticism yet to the Iran-backed group from the country's leaders.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported at least 52 people were killed and 154 wounded in overnight strikes in the Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon. The Ministry of Education said that schools will also be closed Tuesday because of the situation.

During the day, Israel's military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs as well as southern and eastern Lebanon. Shortly after sunset, an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut neighborhood caused widespread damage and the Israeli military said it targeted a senior Hezbollah official.

The Israeli military earlier said it struck more than 70 weapons storage facilities, launch sites and missile launchers belonging to Hezbollah. The military also said it killed senior Hezbollah intelligence official Hussein Mokaled.

Also on Monday, the Israeli military launched a wave of strikes on branches of al-Qard al-Hasan, a Hezbollah-linked microfinance institution, that Israel said is being used to fund the group's military wing.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said the commander of its military wing in Lebanon was also killed in an airstrike south of Beirut overnight.

The Israeli military said that Hezbollah fired a drone toward northern Israel on Monday evening adding that it was successfully intercepted.

Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese government slammed Hezbollah’s decision to enter Iran’s war with Israel and the United States, calling the militant group’s actions illegal and demanding it hand over its weapons.

“There is a side that wants to drag the country to matters that we have nothing to do with,” the Lebanese information minister quoted President Joseph Aoun as saying during an emergency meeting of the Cabinet that discussed the escalation. Aoun was referring to Hezbollah.

In a statement early Tuesday, Hezbollah said “confrontation is a legitimate right,” describing its firing of rockets toward Israel as “a reaction to the aggression," and adding that it had repeatedly warned that Israeli attacks “could not continue without a response.” Israel has continued near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, since a ceasefire was reached with Beirut in late 2024.

Highways were jammed overnight and into Monday with people fleeing after what was Israel's deadliest barrage on Lebanon in more than a year, striking hours after Hezbollah fired missiles across the border for the first time in more than a year.

Ali Hamdan was stuck in gridlock on the road between his village in southern Lebanon, Deir al-Zahrani, and the port city of Sidon. What should have been a half-hour’s drive had taken seven hours, he said.

“I don’t know how long it will take us to reach Beirut," he said. "I’m headed toward Beirut, but I don’t know where yet. We don’t have a place to stay.”

At a public school in Beirut, hastily converted into a temporary shelter, families arrived carrying mattresses, plastic bags and bundles of clothing. Other families sat on sidewalks beside their belongings, some men smoking as they waited for space to become available inside.

Volunteers moved through the crowd, registering names as families filled classrooms and gathered in the school courtyard.

Hussein Abu Ali, who fled a southern Beirut suburb with his wife and children, described the moment the strikes hit.

“My son began shaking and crying," he said. "Where are you supposed to go? I stepped outside, then back in because I was afraid of shooting in the air. I gathered my children and went down to the street.”

Nadia Al‑Salman, displaced from the southern town of Majdal Zoun, said they left their homes "not out of fear or terror of the United States, but to fulfill our religious and legal duty to protect ourselves.”

“They do not intimidate or frighten us, and they will not make us retreat even an inch from the path of resistance,” she added.

Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs Hanin al-Sayed told reporters that 171 shelters have been opened throughout the country, adding that they are housing 29,000 displaced persons.

During the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, at one point, more than a million people were displaced in Lebanon. Many have been unable to return to their homes in the south, where villages along the border remain in ruins.

Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel a day after the militant Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the war in Gaza. After months of low-level fighting, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024 before a U.S. brokered ceasefire nominally halted the fighting two months later.

Since that ceasefire, Israel has continued to launch near-daily strikes in Lebanon, saying it aims to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding.

Monday’s escalation also marked the first time in more than a year that Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for firing into Israel, saying the attacks were in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

But Lebanon’s government said it considers Hezbollah’s military activities illegal and that the group should hand over its weapons. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said after the emergency Cabinet meeting Monday that only the state should decide on matters of war and peace.

He added that Hezbollah’s military activities were banned going forward and called on security agencies to prevent the firing of missiles or drones from Lebanon and detain those behind the launch. It was the harshest stance the Lebanese government has taken yet toward Hezbollah, which also has a political party with a parliamentary bloc in addition to its armed militants.

Salam also called on the international community to work on getting a “clear and final commitment” from Israel to stop its strikes on Lebanon.

The Israeli military overnight issued a warning for residents of around 50 communities across southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel is keeping “all options on the table,” including a potential ground invasion of Lebanon and threatened that “Hezbollah will pay a very heavy price."

He said Israel has called up more than 100,000 reservists since the war with Iran began on Saturday.

Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Sally Abou AlJoud in Dahab, Egypt, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

An Israeli drone flies over Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Cars sit in traffic as residents flee Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people fleeing Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sit on a pickup at a highway links to Beirut, in the southern port city of Sidon, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Displaced families gather in Martyrs' Square after fleeing Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Leaders of the BRICS nations will meet in New Delhi this weekend as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and U.S.-China tensions test the group’s ability to act together.

Host India will seek to balance its ties with China and Russia against its growing partnerships with the United States and other Western powers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are among the leaders expected to attend.

BRICS is a grouping of major emerging markets and developing countries, named after an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It has expanded from its original membership to include 11 countries that together represent about half the world’s population and a large share of its energy, resources and economic output. Experts say its growing size has also exposed divisions as its members want greater influence in the global order but often have competing political, economic and foreign-policy interests.

The conflicts in Iran and Ukraine are likely to highlight those divisions. Iran is a member of the expanded BRICS, while Russia remains one of its most influential members. China has close ties with both countries, while India maintains relations with Russia, Iran, the United States and Europe.

That diversity makes it difficult for BRICS to take a strong common position on major conflicts. The grouping includes countries with competing regional ambitions, including India and China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as other nations from the Global South.

“The Global South is not a homogeneous entity,” said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. “Hence, the grouping will find it hard to manage and mediate in these conflicts.”

Russia’s war in Ukraine has already exposed the limits of India’s ability to balance competing interests. New Delhi has maintained close ties with Moscow, including through energy and defense pacts, while also deepening its strategic relationship with Washington.

The South Asian nation has consistently called for dialogue and diplomacy rather than taking sides.

The Iran-U.S. conflict poses a similar challenge. BRICS members have differing ties with Washington and interests in the Middle East, making a unified response difficult. China and Russia have backed Iran in international forums, while India has taken a cautious approach. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have their own tensions with Tehran.

For India, the summit is an opportunity to manage its relationship with China. Ties have improved since border tensions escalated in 2020, but China remains India’s largest strategic rival.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to New Delhi, his first in seven years, could help consolidate the recent diplomatic thaw but there are few signs of a recovery in trade and business ties.

“The upcoming summit offers India an opportunity to engage with China, make progress on outstanding bilateral issues,” Donthi said.

India also has an interest in preventing BRICS from becoming an explicitly anti-Western bloc.

New Delhi has strengthened ties with the United States, Israel, Japan, Australia and Europe while maintaining its longstanding relationship with Russia.

“India will project its strategic autonomy by being part of a non-West grouping but also finds it useful to engage with China, its primary strategic rival,” Donthi said.

Reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar is a major issue for BRICS. Members have discussed increasing trade in their own currencies and creating payment systems that would reduce their reliance on Western financial institutions.

The idea has gained momentum as countries such as Russia face sweeping Western sanctions. But replacing the dollar will be difficult, as it is deeply embedded in global trade and finance, while BRICS members have different currencies, financial systems and economic priorities.

Mahesh Sachdev, a retired Indian diplomat, said the goal should not be a direct confrontation with the dollar. Instead, he said, countries want to reduce their exposure to the current financial system that can be used for political pressure.

“It’s a challenge, but we’re not talking about frontal confrontations. It’s not a binary situation,” he said.

BRICS’ growing membership also gives it considerable weight, but its influence will ultimately depend on whether the members can agree on practical steps.

The group has called for changes to global financial institutions, greater representation for developing countries and alternatives to Western-dominated systems. Yet its members often disagree on how to achieve those goals.

Sachdev BRICS needs “more cohesive attitude and better harmony” among its members.

“If it remains just a periodic talking shop and photo ops,” he said, “then its relevance erodes.”

Donthi said BRICS’ success could be measured in smaller steps. These include keeping the expanded group together, improving ties with China, and deepening trade and financial cooperation. The grouping could also show that it can give developing countries a platform without forcing them to choose between Western and non-Western blocs, he said.

“BRICS allows for incremental geopolitical gains, if not outright wins,” Donthi said.

Associated Press journalist Piyush Nagpal contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin waves, standing by a limousine, upon his arrival for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Kristina Solovyova, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin waves as he arrives for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Indian Foreign Ministry via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, leaves the plane upon his arrival for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Vladimir Smirnov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)