Israel Strikes Beirut, Prepares to Expand Lebanon Operations After Hezbollah Fires Volley of Rockets

Israeli airstrikes hit a building in the heart of Beirut on Thursday and Israel ordered residents out of another swathe of southern Lebanon, intensifying its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.

The airstrike at around 5:30 pm (1530 GMT) hit a building in the Bachoura neighborhood, around 1 km (mile) from the Lebanese government’s Grand Serail headquarters in downtown Beirut.

Before the strike, the Israeli military issued a warning telling residents they were near a Hezbollah facility against which it intended to action.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive last week against Hezbollah, which started the conflict when it launched attacks at Israel on March 2 that it said aimed to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones at Israel every day since, including its largest barrage late on Wednesday that triggered heavy Israeli strikes on Beirut‘s southern suburbs.

In the Wednesday night launches, Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel as part of a “series of operations,” indicating there could be more to come. Lebanese security sources told Reuters more than 100 rockets were launched.

A senior Israeli defense official said Iran and Hezbollah had launched a joint missile attack, describing it as the first coordinated action against Israel since the war began.

Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been lightly wounded by the rockets.

The Israeli strikes on Beirut‘s southern suburbs began almost immediately after Hezbollah’s attack, sending half a dozen consecutive booms reverberating across the city. The Israeli military said it struck 10 Hezbollah structures within 30 minutes, including a headquarters of its elite Radwan unit.

Beirut‘s skyline was covered in thick smoke, Reuters footage showed. In one of the bombed locations, flickering orange flames were visible late into the night.

Israel’s military has repeatedly ordered residents of the southern suburbs to leave over the last week, prompting a displacement crisis as government shelters struggle to cope.

On Wednesday night, after strikes began, the Israeli military said it would “soon act with overwhelming force” against Hezbollah and that residents should leave immediately.

Israel has pounded Lebanon’s south and east and the capital’s southern suburbs, killing more than 600 people, according to Lebanese authorities. It has also ordered mass evacuations in those same areas, pushing more than 800,000 people out of their homes.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to expand its operations in Lebanon.

“We promised quiet and security to the communities of the north, and that is exactly what we will deliver,” he said at a meeting with senior military officials.

The Israeli military says it has struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets since March 2, launching daily airstrikes in the south, Beirut‘s southern suburbs, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israel’s military ordered reinforcements to the area bordering Lebanon including its elite Golani Brigade and has also sent soldiers into southern Lebanon, establishing new positions there.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Hezbollah fighters were braced for the possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the south.

Lebanon said last year it aims to establish a state monopoly on arms and its cabinet last week outlawed Hezbollah’s military activities.

But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said on Wednesday that Beirut needed to take direct action.

“If Hezbollah is being dismantled, what are the evidence? What are the operations against the launch sites? Where are the seizures of their weapons? Where is your military?” Danon said.