Middle East conflict: Israeli strikes hit south Beirut, Lebanon state media says

Fire and smoke rise from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburb on October 6, 2024. Photo / AFP

Official Lebanese media said five Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut and its outskirts on Saturday night and into Sunday, four of them “very violent”, with AFP correspondents hearing several explosions for an hour and seeing smoke.

“Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on [Beirut’s] southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat” area, with ambulances rushing to the site, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

AFP footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas.

In one south Beirut location, a ball of flame rose into the air while flares shot up amid thick smoke for about an hour.

An AFP correspondent in the Sabra area close to Beirut’s southern suburbs saw dozens of people on the streets, some carrying bags fleeing on foot or on motorbikes as explosions echoed in the background.

The NNA said air traffic at Lebanon’s only airport in Beirut, close to the targeted areas, was “ongoing despite the Israeli enemy’s aggression on the southern suburbs. Several Middle East Airlines planes have just landed”.

Flames and smoke rise from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on October 6, 2024. Official Lebanese media said five Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut and its outskirts during the night of October 5, 2024, four of them "very violent", after the Israeli army called residents to evacuate the Hezbollah bastion. Photo / AFP

Earlier on Saturday night, the Israeli army announced a new call for residents to evacuate from Beirut’s southern suburbs, as it continued to target Hezbollah positions in the Lebanese capital.

“For your safety and that of your family members, you must immediately evacuate the designated buildings and those adjacent to them and move away from them [by] at least 500m,” said spokesperson Avichay Adraee on social media, alongside satellite images highlighting areas in the Burj el-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Chweifat al-Amrussiya neighbourhoods.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and its foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for nearly a year in fallout from the Gaza war.

But since September 23, Israel has launched devastating airstrikes on targets in Lebanon that have killed more than 1110 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes.

Last week, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in airstrikes on the group’s south Beirut bastion.