Israel has destroyed a bridge in southern Lebanon and dropped leaflets on Beirut, warning the visiting country in Gaza that it faces the same scale of destruction, as the military campaign against Hezbollah enters a devastating new phase.
The Jararih Bridge, which spans the Litani River, was shot down early on Friday, with the Israeli military claiming Hezbollah fighters were using it to move between the north and south of the country, although no evidence was provided to support this.
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Israel openly acknowledged hitting civilian infrastructure for the first time since the current offensive began.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Lebanese government would face “increasing costs through damage to infrastructure and loss of territory” as long as Hezbollah remains armed.
Israeli strikes on Friday have not previously targeted areas of Beirut in the conflict. A drone hit a residential building in the Bourj Hammoud district in the city’s northeastern suburbs, while separate strikes hit the Jnah and Nabaa neighborhoods.
Nine people, including five children, were killed in Arki near Sidon and eight in Fawwar area. An ambulance was also hit in the south.
Israel’s latest invasion of Lebanon was triggered on March 2 after Hezbollah launched drones and rockets into northern Israel following an Israeli attack on Iran that killed Iran’s supreme leader.
Since then, at least 773 people have been killed and 1,933 injured, including 103 children, in Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said on Friday. More than 800,000 people, one in seven of the population, have been forced from their homes.
Leaflets dropped on Beirut on Friday issued a stark warning, inviting Israel’s two-year invasion of Gaza as a model for Lebanon to confront, which has laid waste to much of the territory and displaced its entire population.
“In light of great success in Gaza, a new reality newspaper arrives in Lebanon,” the flyer said.
According to a recent satellite analysis by the United Nations Satellite Centre, about 81 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes.
Another flyer called for disarming Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It contained two QR codes for links on WhatsApp and Facebook, along with a message telling Lebanese to get in touch if they want to see “real change” in their country.
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Beirut, said the Lebanese army had warned people not to scan the QR codes because of links to Israeli secret services trying to recruit people.
“(It’s) part of the kind of psychological pressure that Israel wants to put on the Lebanese,” he said.
He added: “(Israel) is striking buildings outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds, which threatens to spark sectarian conflict in Lebanon. It is a deeply sectarian society along sectarian lines.
“It increases mental stress.”
Lebanon ‘approaches breaking point’
Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed al-Hajjar said the scale of the displacement had overwhelmed the kingdom.
“No matter how many shelters are opened in Beirut, it cannot accommodate all the displaced,” he said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said the country was “approaching the breaking point” as displacement accelerated.
“Israel’s evacuation orders now cover 1,470 square kilometers (some 570 square miles), or 14 percent of Lebanon, including southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and parts of the Bekaa,” the international NGO said.
It described the conditions in the collective shelter as desperate, with 1,200 people living in one school, 15 people “crammed” into each classroom, with no shower and one toilet shared between 23 people.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Beirut on Friday, saying Lebanon had been “drawn” into a war of its choosing and calling for $308 million in emergency humanitarian funding.
UN agencies have warned that 11,600 pregnant women have been displaced, with nearly 4,000 expected to give birth in the next three months, many without medical care. Around 55 hospitals and clinics have been forced to close.
A group of 12 independent UN human rights experts, including special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, said the evacuation orders issued to residents of south Lebanon and south Beirut were “obviously illegal”.
He warned that the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, combined with heavy bombing, would be “another war crime” by Israel.
