Israel's war with Iran-backed Hezbollah escalates as IDF bombs financial institutions across Lebanon

A new wave of Israeli air strikes began Sunday evening on locations across Lebanon, some striking dangerously close to Lebanon's only international airport. Israel had announced it would launch a large-scale attack on a banking institution it considers to be Hezbollah's de facto financial arm, the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association.

The attacks began a day after a drone struck Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in downtown Caesarea. He and his wife were not there at the time and there were no casualties, but Netanyahu released a statement on Saturday saying: “Today's attempt by Iran's proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife was a grave mistake. “

Explosions rocked Beirut on Sunday evening as Israeli attacks on Al-Qard al-Hassan began.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Monday morning that the institution “directly finances Hezbollah's terrorist activities, including the purchase of weapons and payments to activists.” The IDF said the Iran-backed, U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group had “billions of dollars” stored in its branches across Lebanon, “including money held directly under the terrorist organization's name.”

The IDF said its strikes hit Al-Qard al-Hassan targets in the capital Beirut in southern Lebanon and “deep in Lebanese territory,” in addition to ongoing strikes in the south that it said had 15 targeted Hezbollah Rocket launchers hit “communities in northern Israel.”

The IDF said: “Numerous steps were taken to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, including advance warnings sent to civilians in the region through various platforms.”

But with every new blow, already overwhelmed hospitals are being put under even greater pressure and even more people are being forced to leave their homes. Lebanese officials say 1.2 million people across the country have been displaced by the war, which escalated sharply a month ago with the start of heavy Israeli airstrikes.

The Lebanese civilian population is gripped by anger and fear for the future

Displaced Lebanese civilians have set up makeshift shelters wherever they can find a piece of land they consider safe.

CBS News caught up with Hussein Hamieh as he held his infant son, just over a month old, outside the tent he had set up on Beirut's popular beach. He fled his home in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area long considered a Hezbollah stronghold and under repeated attacks since mid-September.

The ongoing strikes have only strengthened his resolve and anger.

“I had to flee because we are facing a merciless enemy,” Hamieh said. “They are firing rockets at us, I had to leave my home.”

“We will win, and as long as we live in our country, we will win,” he told CBS News. “We will endure famine, rain, sea or snow and can live among the trees, but we will not leave our land.”

Beirut-based artist Mona Jabour said she was concerned about the long-term damage this war would inflict on everyone in the country, especially younger generations.

“People are going through hell,” she said. “Everything is collapsing beneath our feet… It is simply a catastrophe to see that young people are being raised with violence and wars, and that will perpetuate new hatred and new wars.”

“These types of wars shouldn’t even be allowed in 2024,” she told CBS News. “They bomb each other, and these wars cost a lot – the money that is spent on weapons could be spent much more wisely and constructively, on education, building houses, improving third world countries to create greater security . I think.” People should become aware of the damage that is being done.

Netanyahu's government launched its attack on Hezbollah in September and said it would continue until the group was no longer able to fire rockets and drones across Lebanon's southern border at Israeli communities. Hezbollah has fired well over 10,000 weapons into Israel in the last year in support of Hamas, its Iran-backed ally in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

US sends Israeli missile defense system, tries to 'deescalate tensions'

Most of these Hezbollah missiles and drones are shot down by Israel's missile defense systems, and Iran itself also fired two volleys of ballistic missiles at Israel last year in response to the assassinations of its senior commanders and allies. Since then there has been tension in the region Netanyahu promised to make Iran pay for the last rocket attack on October 1, which caused no casualties.

Anticipating the impending Israeli response – and a possible Iranian counter-reaction – the US did so Israel sent a new missile defense system. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had arrived in Israel along with a small contingent of about 100 American troops.

“We have the ability to get it up and running very quickly,” Austin said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital.

The Biden administration has made clear it would not support an Israeli counterattack targeting Iran's nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, but Austin suggested Monday that Washington was still unsure exactly how far Netanyahu's government would go .

“It is difficult to say exactly what this (Israeli) attack will look like,” he said. “Ultimately this is an Israeli decision, and whether the Israelis think it is proportionate or not and how the Iranians perceive it, I mean, those can be two different things.”

Austin said the U.S. will “continue to do everything we can to reduce tensions and hopefully get both parties to begin de-escalation.”

As part of ongoing efforts to halt the escalating dispute between Israel and Iran's proxy groups in Lebanon and Gaza, senior White House envoy Amos Hochstein was in Beirut on Monday to meet with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister and Iran's spokesman to meet the country's parliament, a Hezbollah-allied lawmaker who is negotiating on the group's behalf.

A U.S. official told CBS News that Hochstein “seeks a lasting agreement that will lead to a permanent end to the conflict.”

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.