Strike hits south Beirut after Israeli army issues evacuation warnings

A series of air raids struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, official media reported and AFP TV footage showed, a day after heavy bombardment as the Israeli army said it targeted Hezbollah sites.

At least seven Israeli strikes hit separate locations in the area, the official National News Agency (NNA) said, some sending thick clouds of white smoke over the targets.

Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon November 17, 2024.

The raids followed two rounds of Israeli army evacuation warnings for sites in the Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Chiyah and Haret Hreik areas, saying they were near “Hezbollah sites and assets.”

The NNA said “enemy aircraft” launched a heavy strike near St. Georges Hospital in Hadath, while another hit a “residential complex” in Haret Hreik.

Another raid “completely destroyed a 12-story residential building near the Mar Mikhail church” in Chiyah, it said.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X that warplanes “under the guidance of the intelligence services launched a series of strikes that targeted military command bases and other Hezbollah terrorist structures.”

The fresh strikes followed repeated Israeli bombardment throughout Saturday of the southern suburbs, normally a bustling, densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway and whose residents have now largely fled.

Also Sunday, the NNA said the Israeli army targeted villages in southern Lebanon, including seven strikes on Jibsheet in less than two hours.

Other raids hit sites in Khiam and in Marjayoun, where a drone strike on a house caused “material damage” to an Orthodox church and other buildings nearby, the NNA said.

The United Nations Human Rights Office earlier this month said it was “alarmed” at the “damage and destruction of buildings dedicated to religion,” including mosques and churches, in Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.

Hezbollah said it had engaged in overnight fighting with Israeli forces near Chamaa, about five kilometers (three miles) from the border with Israel.