BEIRUT: Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah bastions in Beirut and south Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Lebanese government officials said they were studying a US truce proposal.
AFPTV footage showed fresh strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday, following calls from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said “the enemy” carried out three air raids in the morning, later reporting another attack in the neighbourhood of Chiyah.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command centre” in south Beirut.
NNA also reported a strike on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighbourhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins.
Elsewhere in south Lebanon, the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.
Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, targeting military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.
Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.
‘Massive explosion’
In Hamas-run Gaza, the Israeli military said its forces continued “operational activity” in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the targets of an intense offensive since early October.
Troops also operated in the southern district of Rafah, the army said.
Israel says its renewed operations in the ravaged north were meant to stop Hamas militants from regrouping.
A UN-backed assessment at the weekend warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, and UN figures showed the Israeli operation had forced at least 100,000 people to flee.
Israel has pushed back against a Human Rights Watch report this week that said its displacement of Gazans amounts to a “crime against humanity”, as well as findings from a UN Special Committee that pointed to warfare practices that “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as “completely false”, while the United States – Israel’s main military backer – said accusations of genocide “are certainly unfounded”.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 35 people were killed in the territory in the previous 24 hours, taking the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war to 43,799.
The civil defence agency reported 11 people killed in strikes across Gaza early on Saturday.
In Rafah, Jamil Al Masry said a house was hit, causing “a massive explosion”.
“We went to the house, only to find it in ruins, with fire raging and smoke and dust everywhere,” he told AFP.
People “started searching for martyrs and survivors” with their bare hands, he said, with some “still under the rubble”.
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