Israel pounded Beirut with air strikes for the first time in five days this morning – also hitting other targets across Lebanon, leaving at least 24 people dead.
On an extremely bloody day, in addition to those killed in Lebanon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) separately said it killed 50 ‘terrorists’ in Gaza, including a Hamas commander.
The Israeli military said it had first hit “strategic weapons” hidden by Hezbollah underground in the southern Dahieh area of the Lebanese capital.
Its forces also continued hitting other parts of the country – with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 24 deaths in the east and south.
After bombarding the Lebanese capital with daily strikes and issuing dozens of evacuation orders, Israel paused attacks on Beirut last week – though its ground operation in southern Lebanon, and air strikes on the rest of the country, continued.
But today, after the IDF had issued its first Dahieh evacuation order in nearly a week, telling residents to leave one location in Harek Hreik, the city once again awoke to the sound of explosions from air strikes in the southern suburbs.
The blasts began at around 7am local time and were targeted against underground weapons piles, the IDF said.
Deadly attacks were also resumed across Lebanon.
A local mayor was among six people killed in Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, authorities said. A further 43 people were injured there.
One eyewitness in Nabatieh described the situation as “frantic terror”, adding that at least nine violent air strikes had targeted the city within the span of 30 minutes.
The Lebanese public health ministry said five people were also killed in Riyaq, in the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon.
In the south, a further five were killed in Srebbine and three in Touline, the ministry added.
In Qana, near Tyre in the south, there was a series of strikes, killing one and wounding 30, according to the health ministry.
The state run news agency said the death toll there could eventually climb to as high as 10.
Elsewhere in the south, four people were killed in Mazra’at Meshref, the civil defence authority said.
Early reports suggested at least 24 people had died across the country but this figure was also expected to rise.
But elsewhere in Gaza, Israel also resumed deadly air strikes across the war-torn Strip.
Just hours after the United States gave Jerusalem a 30-day deadline to allow more aid into Gaza or risk losing military backing, the IDF once again went on the offensive.
After multiple heavy air strikes across the province, it claimed to have killed another Hamas commander and more than 50 ‘terrorists’.
It named the terror chief as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who it said had directed drone attacks towards Israeli territory. Hamas is yet to comment.
Israel also said its military killed more than 50 “terrorists” in the Jabalia area of Gaza in “close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes”.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said latest figures suggest Israel has now killed 42,344 people in Gaza since October 7.
