Deadly strike on central Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Israel carried out a deadly air raid Thursday in central Beirut after eight ground troops were killed near the Lebanese border, as it traded threats with its arch foe Iran over possible future attacks.

In Beirut, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists heard multiple explosions overnight and reported some buildings shaking.

One of the Israeli strikes hit a Hezbollah rescue facility, a source close to the group told AFP, killing at least six people, according to a Lebanese health ministry toll.

A total of 17 overnight air raids had hit Beirut by dawn on Thursday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

Israel, shifting its focus from the Gaza war sparked by Hamas’ 7 October attack, says it is trying to secure its border with Lebanon so tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by nearly a year of hostilities with Hezbollah can return home.

Israeli bombing of Lebanon has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The military has bombarded Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, having dealt a significant blow to the group last week by killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive strike.

A day after its military said it was conducting “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon, Israel reported the first death of a soldier in the Israel-Hezbollah war, a toll that later rose to eight dead.

Hezbollah said it had forced Israeli soldiers to retreat, targeted an Israeli unit with explosives, and destroyed three Merkava tanks with rockets as they advanced on Maroun al-Ras village.

The Israeli military said it staged two brief incursions into Lebanon, ordering residents to flee more than 20 areas.

The military released footage that it said showed soldiers inside Lebanon, moving through villages and mountainous areas on foot, and announced it had deployed a second division to support the fighting.

Explosions in the Lebanese capital were audible kilometers away and came as the Israeli military ordered residents to leave multiple parts of densely populated southern Beirut in the early hours of Thursday.