Israel launched a swathe of air strikes on Beirut after it re-iterated its calls for residents in the southern suburbs of the city to evacuate on Saturday night.
“For your safety and that of your family members, you must immediately evacuate the designated buildings and those adjacent to them and move away from them at least 500 metres,” Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said on social media, AFP reported.
Dramatic footage shows a fire breaking out after reports of an explosion in Beirut, with grey smoke billowing over the city’s skyline, following a day of attacks across Lebanon.
On Friday, one strike hit Burj al-Barajneh, a refugee camp near Beirut’s only functioning airport, while Al Jazeera claimed another missile hit near a paramedic team to prevent them from getting to the scene of the bigger strike.
Israel claims 440 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since the start of its ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
Its attack on the northern Beddawi camp also killed an official with Hamas’ military wing and his wife and two young daughters, the Palestinian militant group said.
Hamas later said another military wing member was killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes in less than two weeks.
UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on X that “Lebanon faces a terrible crisis” as “hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes.”
According to the UN, the ongoing military operations and displacement orders issued by the Israeli army are driving new waves of displacement, particularly from southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
As of 3 October, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had recorded 541,527 internally displaced persons (IDPs) since the onset of the crisis.
“We were on the road for two days,” said Issa Hilal, one of many Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are now heading back. “The roads were very crowded, it was very difficult. We almost died getting here.”
Israel’s military on Saturday said about 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Most were intercepted, but several fell in the northern town of Deir al-Asad.
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah senior leader in line to replace Hassan Nasrallah after he was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has been “unreachable” since an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Friday.
A Lebanese security source said Hashem Safieddine may have been targeted in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.
Three security officials have confirmed to Reuters that Safieddine was the target of the attack on the Beirut suburbs.
Hezbollah’s media office has claimed that reports citing sources within the group regarding “the fate of Hezbollah officials” are “worthless rumors”.
As Israel strikes Lebanon, the military also re-iterated that it was planning a “serious and significant” response to Iran’s barrage of missiles on Tuesday. An IDF spokesperson said Iran’s attack with 200 ballistic missiles will have “serious consequences”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran’s response to any Israeli aggression will be stronger and harsher, Iranian media reports. During a press conference in Damascus on Saturday, Araghchi stated that Iran’s response to any Israeli strikes would be stronger, while during his visit to Beirut earlier in the week he re-iterated Iranian support for Hezbollah.
Meanwhile in Gaza, almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to the health ministry, with almost 90 per cent of Gaza’s residents displaced, while Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza on Saturday killed at least nine people.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London, with protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the escalating conflict in the Middle East. According to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, 300,000 walked from Russell Square to Whitehall, where speeches took place outside Downing Street. Seventeen people were arrested, the Metropolitan Police said.
The protest comes one year after the 7 October attacks on Israel, with protestors taking to the streets of Paris, New York, New Delhi, Johannesburg and Athens.
