Israel carried out a deadly airstrike against a Hezbollah rescue facility in central Beirut, Lebanese sources said, after several Israeli ground troops were killed near the border.
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The second attack on the center of the capital this week follows Iran’s launch of its largest missile attack against its arch-enemy Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay for its “big mistake.”
Iran, which supports Hezbollah, said it would escalate its response if Israel retaliated, defying calls for a de-escalation in a war that has cost more than 1,000 lives in Lebanon.
The latest Israeli strike hit a Hezbollah rescue facility, a source close to the group told AFP. killing at least six people, according to a report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
AFP journalists in Beirut heard a loud explosion and reported that some buildings were shaking.
Israel, shifting its focus from the war in Gaza sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, says it is trying to secure its border with Lebanon so that Tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by almost a year of exchanges of fire with Hezbollah can return to their homes.
Israel has bombed Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut, having dealt a significant blow to the group last week. by killing their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive attack.
A day after its army said it was carrying out “selective ground raids” in southern Lebanon, Israel reported the first death of a soldier in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a figure that later rose to eight dead.
Hezbollah claimed that it forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw, attacked an Israeli unit with explosives and destroyed three Merkava tanks with rockets as they advanced towards the village of Maroun al-Ras.
The Israeli military said it carried out two brief raids into Lebanon and ordered residents to flee more than 20 areas.
The military released images it said showed soldiers inside Lebanon, moving on foot through villages and mountainous areas, and announced that had deployed a second division to support the fighting.
Israel launched three airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs shortly before midnight, a source close to Hezbollah said, the third wave of attacks in the past 24 hours. The explosions were heard miles away.
The Israeli military ordered residents in several areas of densely populated southern Beirut to leave the area, in an order posted on social media.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that 46 people died y Another 85 were injured by Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours.
Previously, Lebanon’s disaster management agency said 1,928 people have died in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging cross-border fire after the Gaza war broke out almost a year ago.
Israel missile attack on Iran
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said An Israeli strike in Damascus killed four people, including Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir, son-in-law of the slain Hezbollah leader.
The Britain-based war monitor said one of them was Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir, son-in-law of the slain Hezbollah leader.
Hours after Israel announced the start of ground operations in Lebanon, Iran fired some 200 missiles, including hypersonic weapons, sending frightened Israeli civilians into shelters.
Israel claimed to have intercepted most of them. Two people were injured by shrapnel and a school building was damaged.
The Israeli military claimed that several Iranian missiles They hit air bases without causing casualties or damage.
In Jericho, in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian died when “pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him,” said the city’s governor, Hussein Hamayel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “those who attack the State of Israel pay a high price.”
President Joe Biden said the United States “fully supports” Israel, but ruled out supporting its ally with an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Mohammad Bagheri, He threatened to shoot “with greater intensity” if Israel keeps its promise to retaliate.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also warned of a “stronger” response, although he stressed that Iran “is not seeking war.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the missiles were fired in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah along with his Quds Force commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, as well as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, in a bombing in Tehran in July.
Global alarm
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center, resident Liron Yori said he felt “very, very disappointed.”
“I see where the war is going and I don’t feel comfortable with it,” the 22-year-old told AFP.
In central Beirut, people were tired and scared, although some Hezbollah supporters were defiant.
Youssef Amir, displaced from southern Lebanon, said: “I have lost my home and my relatives in this war, but all that is a sacrifice for Lebanon, for Hezbollah.”
Iran’s missile attack, the second against Israel in six months, caused widespread global alarm, as well as a rise in global oil prices.
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the Iranian attack on Israel, saying they “do nothing to support the cause of the Palestinian people.”
The G7 group of rich countries vowed to work together to reduce tensions in the region and said a diplomatic solution “is still possible.”
Hezbollah began low-intensity attacks against Israeli troops a day after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,689 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-controlled territory’s Health Ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
In Gaza, the Ministry of Health said that Its balance published this Wednesday includes 51 deaths in the last 24 hours.
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Source: https://www.noticiascaracol.com/mundo/israel-ataca-a-hezbola-en-beirut-y-al-menos-seis-personas-murieron-cb20
