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Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes.
Attacks on Hezbollah targets by fighter jets Friday continued into the early hours Saturday after the army said it told residents to evacuate three buildings it was targeting.
Hours before the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire. Netanyahu abruptly cut his United States visit short and returned to Israel.
More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict escalated Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The United Nations says the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people now displaced. At least 20 primary health care centers have shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.
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Here’s the latest:
Lebanon asks medical centers to make room for people from hard-hit Beirut suburbs
BEIRUT — Patients in hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated to medical centers in the capital and the nearby Mount Lebanon region, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.
In a statement carried by state news agency early Saturday, the ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to stop receiving cases that can be delayed in order to receive patients evacuating from the hard-hit southern suburb Dahiyeh.
The ministry’s decision came after a night of Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a predominantly Shiite district. The ministry also called on hospitals and medical centers to care for ill people who fled Dahiyeh overnight as a result of the airstrikes.
Israel targets areas around Beirut early Saturday
BEIRUT — Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes.
Explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, with flames lighting up the pre-dawn darkness. Fire raged from at least one location, and smoke and flames were seen from above Beirut early Saturday. Residents reported jets flying overhead.
In a short statement, the Israeli military described the sites it hit as belonging to Hezbollah. Authorities there did not immediately acknowledge if there were any casualties.
Shelters set up in the city center for people displaced by the onslaught were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches, or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.
Israel says it killed a Hezbollah missile unit commander and his deputy
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah missile unit commander and his deputy during a strike in southern Lebanon earlier in the week.
Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its air forces killed Muhammad Ali Ismail, who it said was responsible for directing “numerous terror attacks” against Israel, including the firing of rockets towards Israeli territory.
The Tuesday strike also killed the commander’s deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, it said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.
20 health care centers shut down amid escalating violence in Lebanon, UN says
BEIRUT — The United Nations said the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah has forced at least 20 primary health care centers to shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon.
The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in the latest escalation that began earlier in the week, Israeli airstrikes impacted 25 water facilities, affecting access to clean water for nearly 300,000 in high-risk areas.
The escalation since Sept. 23 has also more than doubled the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon. There are now over 211,000 people displaced, some 85,000 of them now living in public schools and other shelters spread around the country’s north and east.
A new phase of escalation began Friday, when Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leader in the southern suburb of Beirut, in one of the largest blasts to hit the Lebanese capital in years. The fate of the group’s leader is still unknown. After the initial strike early Friday evening, Israeli warplanes continued to pound buildings and targets in the southern suburb for over six hours. Smoke and balls of fire covered the Beirut skyline for hours.
