Israeli strikes rock Beirut, Iran says its allies 'will not back down'

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut�s southern suburbs on Oct. 5, 2024.

Iran's supreme leader vowed in a rare address on Friday that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country's missile strike on its foe.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's address in Tehran followed Iran's second-ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.

Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, Khamenei defended the Palestinian group's "logical and legal" actions and hailed its "fierce defense" against Israeli forces.

The unprecedented Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, triggering global condemnation but also supportive fire from Iran-backed groups around the Middle East, mainly Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi rebels.

Hezbollah said early Saturday it was engaged in ongoing clashes with Israeli troops in the Lebanon border area after earlier saying it forced Israeli soldiers to retreat there.

Correspondents heard a series of explosions in Beirut early Saturday over the city's southern suburbs after Israeli army Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents in part of the area's Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood to evacuate.

In Jordan and Bahrain, which both have ties with Israel, crowds gathered after Friday prayers in a show of support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

In Amman, demonstrators carried posters hailing the "glory and dignity" of the Oct. 7 attack.

Nearly a year into the Gaza war, Israel has shifted its focus north,...