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| Witnesses said the deadly strike on Beirut's seafront targeted a parked car (Image: Reuters) |
After the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah fired about 200 rockets into northern Israel, the Israeli military launched several waves of air strikes across Lebanon, including the capital, Beirut. In the south of the country and the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold from which thousands of people have fled due to the intense bombardment over the past week, numerous Israeli strikes were reported. Other areas of the capital were affected by some strikes, including the Corniche seafront. According to Lebanon's health ministry, twelve deaths occurred overnight. In an apparent coordinated attack with Iran, Hezbollah launched the rocket barrage across the Israeli border on Wednesday evening.
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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that the Israeli military had been instructed to prepare to broaden its operations in Lebanon in response.
The military subsequently expanded a blanket evacuation order for southern Lebanon, almost doubling the size of the zone it has said residents should leave for their safety.
According to an online map, it now encompasses nearly the entire region south of the Zahrani river, which flows east to west about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israeli border. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated, "It is a war we did not want; on the contrary, we are working day and night to bring it to an end," in an address to his nation.
Ten days ago, Hezbollah launched rockets and drones into Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iran's supreme leader and the numerous Israeli strikes since a ceasefire ended their last war in 2024, bringing Lebanon into the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the US. Israel claimed that the attack by Hezbollah justified the launch of a more extensive campaign against the organization, which would include extensive air strikes and commando raids inside Lebanese territory. The campaign, it has stated, will continue until Hezbollah is disarmed. Since then, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 687 people, including 98 children, and displaced 800,000 more, according to Lebanese authorities. According to the Israeli military, combat in Lebanon has resulted in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers.
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| The Israeli military said it targeted a "Hezbollah facility" in Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood (Image: Reuters) |
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday evening that it was carrying out waves of strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut and southern Lebanon. One of them struck a building in the central Bachoura neighborhood of the capital, less than 500 meters (1,640 feet) from a BBC team. It followed a warning from the IDF that told residents it would be targeting a "a facility belonging to the terrorist group Hezbollah".
Before the building was struck, a warning shot was fired, ejecting a grey smoke cloud over the city. More strikes followed, shaking the windows of the building where the BBC team was.
As officials examined the scene of an overnight strike, a large area at Ramlet al-Baida on Beirut's Corniche was cordoned off earlier. According to a military official from Lebanon, personnel were dealing with unexploded bombs. After what appeared to be a direct hit on a car, the Lebanese health ministry reported that 12 people died and 28 others were injured. There were reports of a second attack after people gathered to help, causing further casualties.
At the seafront, where hundreds of people who had been displaced by the conflict were sleeping in improvised shelters, there were no specific warnings about the strike.
After fleeing the town of Chmestar in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Khoudor Housseini's family was staying there. According to him, an Israeli drone flying overhead fired a missile at a parked car. "It returned to the car about two minutes later. "He told the BBC that one missile didn't explode." "Maybe we would have all perished if it had exploded... God protected us."
I was one of the people who wanted to assist, but I was unable to. I have a little baby with me."
Mohammed Ali, whose family was displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs, told the BBC: "We were sleeping here peacefully and didn't feel anything until something exploded and we woke up in a panic."
"We went back to sleep thinking the targeting was over when they said one strike had occurred, but then the second strike happened," Mohammed said he grabbed two of his children and rushed them away from the area.
He lamented the fact that the city's schools, which have been converted into centers for people fleeing their homes, were already full, leaving few options open to those individuals. The strike has received no response from the IDF.
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| Several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs were destroyed or badly damaged overnight (Image: Reuters) |
In addition, Dahieh, one of Beirut's southern suburbs, experienced extensive bombing. According to the IDF, ten Hezbollah-used structures, including an intelligence headquarters and the headquarters of the elite Radwan force, as well as dozens of rocket launchers and Hezbollah agents preparing to use them, were struck overnight. It continued, "As a result of the terrorist organization's decision to deliberately attack Israel on behalf of the Iranian regime," the IDF is "operating with determination against the Hezbollah terrorist organization." An IDF spokesperson said Hezbollah's cross-border attack on Wednesday was its biggest so far in this conflict, with approximately 200 rockets and 20 drones launched by the group at the same time as Iran launched a number of ballistic missiles towards Israel.
In response to what it referred to as "the criminal aggression against dozens of Lebanese cities and towns," Hezbollah claimed that it had targeted locations in northern Israel on Wednesday night. Later, the group said the targets had included the headquarters of the Israeli military's northern command near Safed and two bases in the northern city of Haifa.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) also said its forces had carried out a "joint and integrated operation" with Hezbollah that focused on more than 50 targets in Israel.
Two people were lightly injured when a building in the northern Galilee was struck, according to Israeli authorities. In Haniel, a farming community in the center of Sharon, debris from an intercept caused damage to another building, but no injuries were reported.
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| One building in central Israel was damaged during the co-ordinated attack by Hezbollah and Iran (Image: Reuters) |
In response to the most recent Hezbollah attack, Israel's defense minister stated on Thursday morning that the Israeli military had been instructed to prepare for "expanding... operations in Lebanon and for restoring quiet and security to the northern communities." Katz also warned Michel Aoun, the president of Lebanon, that the Lebanese government would "take the territory and do it ourselves" if it "does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing toward Israel."
French President Emmanuel Macron said late on Wednesday that he had spoken to Aoun about the threats to Lebanon's security and unity.
"Bringing Lebanon into a conflict with Israel was a major mistake by Hezbollah. On X, Macron wrote, "It must immediately cease its attacks." "Israel, on the other hand, must categorically reject any ground offensive in Lebanon." "A moment of grave peril for Lebanon," warned
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. "At this time, the Lebanese people are doing everything in their power to stay afloat. And what they most need is Iran and Israel to take war somewhere else," he told the BBC.
Source: BBC
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