Israeli air strikes on central Beirut have killed 22 people and wounded at least 117, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said.
Videos published by local news channels and verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad showed chaotic scenes in the aftermath of Thursday’s attacks on Ras el-Nabaa and al-Nuweiri in Beirut.
The strikes appear to have hit densely populated residential areas as flames and smoke rose from two residential blocks.
Many residents left their apartments in the high-rise blocks in the area and gathered in courtyards as emergency services rushed to the scene.
The area is outside the city’s southern suburbs, where attacks by Israeli forces regularly occur.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan said the attacks took place in the heart of the Lebanese capital, where many of the displaced took shelter over the past few weeks.
“Many people who had fled southern Lebanon had found shelter here, and it’s just becoming retraumatising, unpredictable and dangerous,” Khan said.
The injured were brought to local hospitals, which sent out a warning asking people not to donate blood because they were already overwhelmed by the number of casualties and the inflow of family members.
Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground said a family of five people that fled southern Lebanon was killed alongside three relatives who were hosting them.
The attacks, which came without warning, mark the third time since Israel expanded its campaign on Lebanon in late September that its bombs have hit outside Dahiyeh, a southern suburb that has seen near-daily air raids in recent weeks.
Israel also attacked Beirut’s Kola on September 29 and Bachoura on October 3.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported the simultaneous strikes were an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group. It said the assassination had failed as Safa was not inside the targeted buildings.
Al Jazeera’s Khan said Safa heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with the Lebanese government and is therefore considered a political figure, rather than a military one.
“This would be the first target on the political side, which makes things much more dangerous inside central Beirut, considering [Hezbollah members] have played a big role in politics,” she said.
There was no immediate comment on the incident by Israel, but its army issued a new evacuation warning on Thursday night for Beirut’s southern suburbs, including specific buildings.
Earlier in the day, Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to their homes in the south of the country.
United States Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in Las Vegas that a ceasefire deal was needed in Lebanon and in Gaza. “We are working around the clock in that regard, but we need these wars to end and we’ve got to definitely de-escalate what is happening in the region,” she said.
‘Face-to-face encounters’
Hezbollah said it fired a missile salvo at Israeli forces on Thursday as they were trying to pull casualties out of the Naqoura area and they were directly hit.
Earlier, Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, saying it launched at least four barrages.
The Lebanese group said its forces sent a “large rocket salvo” towards Kiryat Shmona, where sirens sounded.
It also said another rocket barrage was directed towards a site along the border with other strikes targeting Israeli soldiers in Beit Hillel and Maayan Baruch, also close to the border.
Israeli media said two Israeli citizens were lightly wounded by shrapnel to the legs in Upper Galilee.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its soldiers were pushing on with their ground incursion inside Lebanon while being supported by dozens of air raids.
Fighter jets launched attacks on more than 110 targets in Lebanon, it said.
According to Lebanese authorities, an emergency centre in the southern Lebanese village of Derdghaiya was targeted.
In southern Lebanon, it reported “face-to-face encounters” with Hezbollah fighters and said it destroyed antitank missile launchers and rockets aimed at northern Israel.
Reporting from Hasbaiyya in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said there were intense Israeli air strikes in the nearby town of Khiam.
Khan said another town in central Lebanon, Wardaniyeh, saw attacks a day earlier, which killed at least five people.
“That’s far away from southern Lebanon and from the southern suburbs of Beirut, and that’s very concerning to the Lebanese because it shows the Israeli air campaign is widening across the country,” Khan said.
“A lot of people here feel that this is just collective punishment.”
Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,169 people in Lebanon over the past year, the Lebanese government said in its daily update. The majority have been killed since September 27 when Israel expanded its military campaign.
UN peacekeepers attacked
The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said two of its peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force’s main headquarters in Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing the peacekeepers to fall.
There were no casualties in two other incidents of Israeli forces firing on UNIFIL positions, a UN source said.
“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was following up with the Israeli military.
The White House said the US was deeply concerned by reports that Israeli forces fired on UN positions and was pressing Israel for details.
Israel’s military said in a statement that its troops had operated in the Naqoura area “next to a UNIFIL base”.
“Accordingly, the [Israeli military] instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area,” the statement said, adding that it maintains routine communications with UNIFIL.
The attack has drawn international condemnation, including from France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
