Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut neighbourhoods as over one million displaced in Lebanon, escalating conflict with Hezbollah and regional tensions
BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes rained down on three neighbourhoods in Beirut early Tuesday, Lebanese state media reported, as Lebanon said more than one million people had been displaced in two weeks of fighting.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel has responded with broad air raids on its northern neighbour and troop incursions into border areas
“A series of raids and artillery shelling targeted southern towns at dawn,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
“Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes targeting the Kafaat and Haret Hreik areas” and another airstrike on a residential apartment building in the Doha Aramoun area, NNA added.
An Ethiopian woman was wounded in the strikes, it said, quoting the health ministry.
Israel confirmed it had carried out the attacks, saying it was targeting Hezbollah.
Israel said earlier it had launched a “wide scale wave of strikes” in the Iranian capital Tehran and was also targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut.
Israeli strikes have killed 886 people, including 67 women and 111 children, since the start of the fresh fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Lebanon’s health ministry said Monday, adding that 2,141 others have been wounded.
Lebanese authorities said more than one million people have registered as displaced since March 2, with more than 130,000 people staying in upwards of 600 collective shelters.
The Israeli military has issued sweeping evacuation warnings for southern Lebanon, extending more than 40 kilometres (around 25 miles) from its border.
Defence Minister Israel Katz has warned that displaced Lebanese should not return home “south of the Litani area until the safety of residents in the north (of Israel) is guaranteed”.
