BEIRUT (AFP) – Israel unleashed a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold on Wednesday night, Lebanese state media said, as the war reached its one-month mark.
With six buildings levelled in at least 17 Israeli raids, the strikes mark one of the most brutal nights in the capital’s southern suburbs since the war erupted on September 23.
Separately, Syria’s state media reported Israeli air strikes on a residential building in Damascus and a military site in Homs that killed a soldier and wounded seven others.
The raids came after United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to Israel, told the US ally to avoid further escalations.
Israel is fighting Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In Lebanon, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported at least 17 Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, calling the raids “the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war”.
Six buildings were destroyed around the suburb of Laylaki, NNA said, including a residential complex hit by four Israeli strikes “causing a large fire”.
AFPTV footage showed a massive explosion followed by smaller blasts in the embattled suburb after the Israeli army issued an Arabic-language evacuation warning for the area, where Hezbollah holds sway.
There was no warning, however, for a strike that hit the Jnah neighbourhood in southern Beirut.
That strike killed one person and wounded five others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes pounded Tyre, leaving swaths of its centre in ruins and sparking a new exodus from the once vibrant coastal city.
“The whole city shook,” said resident Rana, who fled to the seafront after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning. Bilal Kashmar of Tyre’s disaster management unit said seven buildings were levelled and more than 400 apartments damaged.
“You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated,” he told AFP.
Black smoke was seen rising from several neighbourhoods, with some areas just 500 metres from the city’s ancient ruins.
UNESCO said it was “closely following” the conflict’s impact on Tyre’s World Heritage site.
Blinken’s visit to the region, his 11th since the Gaza war began, was part of continued US efforts to end the war and limit its regional fallout.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 42,792 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry, data which the United Nations considers reliable.
Blinken said Israel had “achieved most of its strategic objectives” in Gaza and should now aim for lasting success. “Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success,” he said.
Concerns are mounting over tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in Gaza’s aid-starved north, where Israel launched a major air and ground assault this month.
Blinken acknowledged “progress” on aid for Gaza but said more needed to be done.
With winter approaching, displaced Gazans fear the cold.
Ahmad al-Razz said he sewed sacks together to make his tent on the beach near Deir el-Balah.
