AN Israeli strike on an apartment building in Beirut has killed at least six people overnight, Lebanon’s health ministry said, as governments around the world scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the country.
Israel was pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah while conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children.
The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to address the spiralling conflict in Middle East.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN said his country launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday as a deterrent to further Israeli violence, while his Israeli counterpart called the barrage an “unprecedented act of aggression”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late on Tuesday to retaliate, and an Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel did so.
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.
The UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (below) confirmed on Thursday morning that more than 150 British nationals and dependants were on the first UK Government-chartered flight out of Lebanon on Wednesday.
A “limited number” of further flights from Beirut will take place from Thursday, continuing as long as the security situation allows.
“Recent events have demonstrated the volatility of the situation in Lebanon," Lammy said, urging British citizens still in Lebanon to register with the Foreign Office and “leave the country immediately".
Meanwhile, Japan has dispatched two Self Defence Force (SDF) planes to prepare for a possible airlift of Japanese citizens from Lebanon.
Two C-2 transport aircraft are expected to arrive in Jordan and Greece on Friday, Japan NHK national television reported.
Japan dispatched SDF aircraft in October and November 2023 to evacuate more than 100 Japanese and South Korean citizens from Israel.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday her government had booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.
The seats are available to 1700 Australians and their families known to be in Lebanon on two flights from Beirut to Cyprus, Wong said.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’s cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.
Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
