(Beirut) The Lebanese national news agency ANI reported on the night of Saturday to Sunday five Israeli strikes targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut and its surroundings, including four “very violent”, after Israeli calls to evacuate several neighborhoods of this Hezbollah stronghold.
AFP journalists heard several detonating explosions and saw smoke rising from the southern suburbs of Beirut. Ambulances rushed to the scene, according to ANI, which had also reported the presence of Israeli reconnaissance drones flying at low altitude, before these strikes.
AFP images showed plumes of smoke rising from targeted areas as well as a huge fireball projected into the sky. Flaming debris scattered, causing secondary fires and a dense cloud of smoke.
PHOTO AMR ABDALLAH DALSH, REUTERS
The southern suburbs of Beirut have been regularly shelled for several days by the Israeli army.
An AFP correspondent near Sabra, near Beirut’s southern suburbs, saw dozens of people in the streets, some carrying bags and fleeing on foot or motorbikes as explosions echoed in the background.
Air traffic at Lebanon’s only airport, near the southern suburbs of Beirut, “continues despite the aggression of the Israeli enemy” against this area, ANI said.
PHOTO AMR ABDALLAH DALSH, REUTERS
A view of a building damaged during an Israeli strike, in Kola, central Beirut, Lebanon, October 5, 2024.
The news agency added that several planes from Middle East Airlines (MEA), the only company that continues to serve Beirut, had just landed.
The southern suburbs of Beirut have been regularly shelled for several days, especially at night, by the Israeli army which generally issues calls to evacuate beforehand.
PHOTO AVI OHAYON, REUTERS
Israeli soldiers stand guard near the Lebanese border on October 4.
“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 at least 500 meters,” the army spokesperson wrote on Saturday for the Arabic-speaking public, Avichay Adraee, on his X account, mentioning several neighborhoods in the southern suburbs.
Hezbollah initiated hostilities on the border with Israel from the start of the Israeli offensive against its ally, Palestinian Hamas, in Gaza in October 2023.
PHOTO LEO CORREA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Smoke rises into the sky after Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon, seen from northern Israel, October 5, 2024.
Many residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs have fled to other Lebanese areas since Israel intensified its bombing campaign on September 23.
Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in the country, including more than 1,100 since September 23, according to authorities. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced.