Israel bombs central Beirut, kills 6, strafes South, East Lebanon | US-Israel war over Iran news

A wave of Israeli airstrikes was launched as the ground offensive widened in the south, where Hezbollah is fighting Israeli forces.

Israel attacked a building in Bashoura, a neighborhood in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported, shortly after Israel threatened to evacuate the site as explosions and smoke rose in the area.

The attack was part of a deadly wave of Israeli attacks across Lebanon that killed at least 20 people and wounded 24 on Wednesday, according to the country’s public health ministry, as the attacks spread from the capital through the country’s south and east, a devastating front in the wider United States-Israel war against Iran that has left the region in limbo.

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in an airstrike in Beirut.

Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Beirut, reports that intense Israeli attacks hit many areas overnight across Lebanon, including central Beirut.

Speaking from the front of a 15-story building during one of the raids, Khodr said its lower floors were targeted a week ago. Early in the morning, however, the building was completely demolished, with the Israeli army claiming that Hezbollah had stored money there.

“You can see extensive damage in this entire neighborhood,” Khodr said.

Israel’s military, in what it described as a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon, issued evacuation threats to residents of four towns near the Zahrani River and the Tire region, warning them to head north immediately.

Lebanon’s NNA reported early morning strikes in Tire and the nearby al-Burj al-Shamali area.

At least four people were killed in an Israeli attack targeting four houses in the town of Sahmar in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

The offensive, which has been intensifying since Israel began its offensive on March 2, has killed at least 912 people in Lebanon, including 111 children, and injured more than 2,200, according to Lebanese health ministry figures.

More than a million people have been forced from their homes. The United Nations warned on Tuesday that Israeli attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure could constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law.

A spokesman for the UN human rights office said the deliberate targeting of civilians or civilian objects “amounts to a war crime”, adding that Israel’s sweeping displacement orders into southern Lebanon may itself violate international law.

Khoder said Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem last night laid out conditions for ending the war, including stopping Israeli attacks, allowing displaced people to return to their homes, releasing those detained by Israel for the past two years and withdrawing the Israeli army.

Throughout South Lebanon, Khodr said that Hezbollah is “still present in the region, trying to reverse the advance of the Israeli army”, Hezbollah’s goal is not only territorial control of the region, but also to prevent Israel from gaining new positions in the country.

The conflict erupted on February 28 when US and Israeli forces assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, prompting Hezbollah to launch rockets into northern Israel on March 2.

Israel has killed more than 2,000 people in its attacks across Iran and Lebanon.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a staunch Israeli ally, added his voice to growing international concern, warning that Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon was a “mistake” that risked worsening what he described as an already dire humanitarian situation.