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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
William Mata

At least 11 killed after Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon capital Beirut

Rescuers use an excavator to search the rubble of a levelled building, following an overnight Israeli airstrike - (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 11 people have been killed in central Beirut after a series of air strikes destroyed one building and left a crater in the ground.

The strikes hit the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday with Lebanon's state-run National News Agency saying Israeli war planes "completely destroyed an eight-storey residential building with five missiles".

The Israeli military failed to issue a warning for residents to evacuate before the strike and did not publicly commented on it.

The strikes, which occurred at around 4am local time, came after a day of heavy bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs and the southern coastal city of Tyre.

The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices before those strikes.

People walk amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in the Shayyah neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs (AFP via Getty Images)
Rescuers use an excavator to search the rubble of a levelled building, following an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's Basta neighbourhood (AFP via Getty Images)

Heavy ground fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants was ongoing in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops have pushed farther from the border.

The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein travelled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a ceasefire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-on war in the past two months.

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and injured more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It has displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon's population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.

Earlier this week, Hezbollah’s chief spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party's office in central Beirut.

Israel had not previously aimed a bombardment at the Lebanese capital but has appeared to intensify its efforts in recent weeks.

The death toll in the fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000 this week, according to local health officials. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused heavy destruction across wide areas of the coastal territory, leading many to wonder when or how it will ever be rebuilt. Around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services

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