Israel carried out at least a dozen airstrikes on Beirut on Saturday in the heaviest attack the Lebanese capital has seen in more than a week.
Huge clouds of smoke were seen rising in the southern suburbs of the city, where Hezbollah’s main base is located.
In some cases, the Israeli army issued warnings to people to evacuate, but there was not much time – in one place only a few minutes.
Damage and casualties are still being assessed, but at least one multi-storey building has been completely destroyed.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities and the intelligence headquarters’ command center in Dahieh.
Also on Saturday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa and areas north of the city. Israeli doctors said one man was killed by shrapnel.
After three quiet days in Beirut, the southern suburbs once again roared with the sound of Israeli airstrikes on Saturday.
Thick, billowing smoke, first black, then gray, rose from many neighboring areas, darkening the sky.
Two of the attacks took place near Beirut airport, which is still being used for scheduled civilian flights.
Within a period of one hour, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued three emergency evacuation warnings to residents in several districts in the area.
Israeli forces also continue to target areas outside Beirut.
In the north of the city, a couple was filmed trying to escape a suspected Israeli drone. According to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), they stopped their car on the side of the highway and ran into the bushes, but were killed by a rocket attack.
Elsewhere in Lebanon, NNA reported that five people were killed – including a local mayor – in an Israeli attack in the eastern Bekaa Valley region.
Several others were injured in what the NNA said was an attack on a residential apartment.
Israel said it was attacking targets in Lebanon linked to the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Israel’s latest attack comes after the IDF said more than 100 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon.
a drone also targeted the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the northern coastal city of Caesarea on Saturday morning. The Prime Minister was not home at that time.
Previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalated in October 2023 – when the Lebanese militant group fired on Israeli positions in a show of solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden said there was a chance “towards a ceasefire” in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, but that it would be “more difficult in Gaza”.
The war in Gaza began after a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead, of whom 251 were taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas in response, and since then, at least 42,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
