Israel strikes Beirut after threatening to expand Lebanon operations

BEIRUT: Israel renewed its strikes on Beirut on Thursday, as it threatened to expand operations and seize territory in Lebanon if Hezbollah did not stop its attacks.

The Israeli military issued a call to evacuate ahead of the Beirut attack, after having also widened its evacuation warning for residents in southern Lebanon to include areas below the Zahrani river, around 40 kilometres north of Israel.

After Hezbollah announced a new operation against Israel on Wednesday night, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the following day that he had ordered troops to “prepare for expanding” attacks in Lebanon.

“I warned the President of Lebanon that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing toward Israel — we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” Katz said.

The Israeli military later announced “a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure across Beirut”, with AFPTV footage showing dark smoke rising into the sky above Bashoura, in the heart of the Lebanese capital.

Bashoura is generally a busy part of town, adjacent to Beirut’s commercial centre, where many large companies and government institutions are based.

The strike there was the fourth in central Beirut since the beginning of the latest round of fighting on March 2.

Both Israel and Iran said Hezbollah on Wednesday launched a coordinated attack with the Iranian military. Hezbollah had declared it was staging a new operation.

The Israeli military said the attack saw the Iran-backed group launch around 200 rockets and about 20 drones in its biggest barrage since the start of the war.

An Israeli strike hours later in Ramlet al-Bayda, on Beirut’s seaside, killed 12 people and wounded 28, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw a damaged motorcycle and two damaged cars, with the area, usually bustling with crowds, now sealed off by security forces.

Blood stains were on the pavement, and there was a small hole in the ground.

“We saw dead people on the ground,” said Aseel Habbaj, a displaced woman who had been sheltering in a nearby tent after fleeing Israeli bombings in other areas of Lebanon.