Lebanon.. 9 night raids on Beirut suburbs and Hezbollah expands its missile strikes

Israeli warplanes launched 9 raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after Israeli warnings to neighborhoods to evacuate. This comes as Hezbollah expanded its missile strikes in the past hours to include 3 Israeli army bases south of Tel Aviv, north of Acre and south of Haifa, while shelling from Lebanon on the coastal city of Nahariya in northern Israel killed two people.

Live footage showed fire and smoke coming from at least three different locations in Beirut's southern suburbs, followed by explosions. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Beirut reported that some of the airstrikes shortly after midnight targeted the Laylaki and Haret Hreik areas in the southern suburbs.

The raids tonight came after Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee warned residents of at least three neighborhoods in the southern suburbs via the X website to evacuate them, saying, "You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, which the Israeli army will act against in the near future."

Since Tuesday morning, the Israeli army has launched one of the most violent raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, and columns of smoke have risen over Beirut with about 12 raids on the southern suburbs since Tuesday morning.

The Israeli military said after posting warnings to civilians on social media that it had struck Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, later adding that it had destroyed most of the Lebanese group’s missile production sites and weapons depots.

Civilian casualties

After clashes with factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, which began after Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of more than 146,000 Palestinians, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the genocide since September 23 to include most areas of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, through air strikes, and also began a ground invasion in the south.

The aggression on Lebanon resulted in a total of 3,287 deaths and 14,222 injuries, including a large number of children and women, in addition to about 1.4 million displaced persons. Most of the victims and displaced persons were recorded after September 23.

(Al Jazeera + Agencies)