A powerful airstrike targeting central Beirut shook the Lebanese capital on Saturday, security sources said, as Israel ramped up its offensive against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
At least four people were killed and 33 injured in the attack in Beirut's Basta district, Hezbollah's Al-Manar broadcaster reported, citing the Health Ministry. Lebanon's state news agency said early Saturday that the attack left scores of casualties and an eight-story building destroyed. Footage broadcast by Lebanon's al-Jadeed broadcaster showed at least one destroyed building and several others in its surrounding area badly damaged.
The explosion shook the capital around 4 a.m., according to a Reuters witness. Security sources said at least four bombs were dropped.
It was Israel's fourth airstrike on central Beirut this week, with the majority of Israeli attacks targeting southern suburbs controlled by Hezbollah.
“The capital Beirut woke up to a horrifying massacre as the enemy Israeli Air Force completely destroyed an eight-story house on Al Mamoun Street in the Basta district with five missiles,” the state news agency reported.
Reporters from Agence France-Presse heard at least three large explosions.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces shelled southern Lebanon and the outskirts of Beirut, reportedly killing at least five medics.
Israeli ground forces also clashed with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on Friday, and the Iranian-backed group said it fired rockets at Israeli forces east of the town of Hiyam at least four times in one day. Lebanese security sources said Israeli forces had advanced into a series of villages in the west.
Lebanon's Health Ministry announced on Friday that an Israeli airstrike hit a house near Dar al-Amal University Hospital in northeastern Lebanon's Baalbek province, killing the hospital's director and six of his colleagues.
Two rockets exploded at the UNIFIL peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon, leaving four Italian soldiers with minor injuries, a United Nations military spokesperson said on Friday.
Italian sources said an investigation was ongoing. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah may have been involved in the attack.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that five medical workers from a Hezbollah-affiliated rescue force were killed in Israeli military attacks on two other villages in southern Lebanon.
More than 200 doctors are among the more than 3,500 people killed in Israeli airstrikes over the past year, according to the Health Ministry.
In Lebanon, Israel is carrying out an intense military campaign against Hezbollah, tempering hopes that the efforts of the US envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire. US mediator Amos Hochstein said in Beirut this week that a ceasefire was “within reach.” According to US news agency Axios, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington.
The White House announced Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed efforts to “secure a ceasefire in Lebanon that will allow residents on both sides of the Blue Line to safely return to their homes.” . .
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which have raged for more than a year along Lebanon's southern border, intensified after Israel stepped up attacks in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on October 1.
Abeer Dulwich, a resident of the building attacked on Friday in Beirut's southern suburbs, once a Hezbollah population center, had to leave his apartment immediately after receiving an evacuation warning from the Israeli military.
She stood and watched as Israeli airstrikes smashed skyscrapers into dust.
“Did you know that most of the owners of the apartments bought those houses with their own money? Life savings gone, memories and security… that's what Israel decided to steal from us.” Darwich he said.
An evacuation advisory was issued for several buildings in the area on Friday.
In the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Friday that hospitals only have two days left of fuel before they have to restrict services, after the United Nations warned that it was having difficulty delivering aid to the area. He announced that he only had one day left.
Marwan al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospital, said all hospitals in the Palestinian territory “will cease operations or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the measures taken by the occupation forces.” [Israel’s] Obstruction of fuel inlet.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of only two partially operating hospitals in northern Gaza, had “80 patients, including eight in intensive care,” “We are deeply concerned about the safety and health of our patients.”
Friday's warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, more than a year after the start of the war in Gaza. The United Nations and others have repeatedly condemned the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north, and Israel on Friday said it had killed two commanders involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war. Announced.
Gazan medics said dozens of people were killed or missing in Israeli military raids on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia overnight into Friday.
Partnership with Reuters and Agence France-Presse
