Wassim Seif El Din
03 October 2024•Update: 03 October 2024
BEIRUT
At least nine people were killed and 14 others injured in an overnight Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Bachoura area of central Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Thursday.
According to an Anadolu correspondent, the airstrike caused heavy damage to the surrounding buildings and cars in the targeted area.
The ministry said efforts were underway to identify the victims.
The Israeli army also carried out several airstrikes on neighborhoods in the southern suburb of Beirut, leaving behind a huge plume of smoke.
Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said that up until daybreak on Thursday, Israeli forces carried out 17 airstrikes on Beirut and its southern suburb.
The agency also reported more Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanese villages and towns.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement that the army carried out "precise" strikes on Beirut, but gave no further details.
Israel has launched massive airstrikes since Sept. 23 on what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon that have killed so far more than 1,100 victims, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 41,800 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
At least 1,928 people have since been killed, over 9,200 injured, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara and Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul
