Image Credit: AFP
BEIRUT: Air strikes hit south Beirut on Friday, crumpling an 11-storey building, as Israel kept up its deadly bombardment of strongholds of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south of the country killed five Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics.
The World Health Organisation said 226 health workers and patients have been killed in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October last year.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes carried out successive rounds of strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs from early morning until evening, including on two buildings closer to the city centre.
AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke over the southern suburbs.
NNA said Israeli strikes also hit multiple targets in south Lebanon, after the Israeli military issued warnings for part of the coastal city of Tyre and other areas.
The Israeli military said the air force struck Hezbollah targets around Tyre “including command centres, intelligence infrastructure, weapons storage facilities” and an observation post, and “completed a series of strikes on Hezbollah terrorist command centres” in south Beirut.
An AFP photographer captured the moment a missile struck an 11-storey building housing shops, a gym and apartments on a usually busy street in south Beirut’s Shiyah district.
The impact sparked a fireball and caused the structure to collapse in on itself, littering the street with debris.
In south Lebanon, NNA said Israeli troops entered the village of Deir Mimas, around 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the border, for the first time.
“Enemy reconnaissance aircraft” were flying over the village, warning people “not to leave their homes”, it said. Most of the village’s population had already fled.
Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers around Deir Mimas with rockets and artillery.
The Israeli army has been seeking to advance at several points along the border, most prominently in the town of Khiam, where Hezbollah said it repeatedly attacked troops on Friday.
More than 11 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict escalated into full-scale war in September, with Israel conducting an intensive bombing campaign, primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds, and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.
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