️ Israeli military forces conducted airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The Lebanese National News Agency reported several strikes in the early morning hours targeting the Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik neighborhoods, with no immediate reports of casualties.
️ The attacks occurred after Israel's 24-hour deadline for Iranian representatives to leave Lebanese territory expired. Israeli military authorities had earlier issued forced displacement orders for these areas, warning they were about to strike what they claimed were targets linked to Hezbollah. The military alleged that targets included a facility used by the group's aerial units but provided no evidence to support this claim.
️ Al Jazeera correspondent Heidi Pett, reporting from Beirut, stated that "the Iranians seem to believe this is a threat against their embassy and are threatening any Israeli embassy if their mission is struck." Human Rights Watch called the threats deeply concerning, saying they signal an intent to commit a war crime, as international law prohibits targeting people not directly involved in hostilities.
️ Pett also noted that residents of Beirut fired shots into the air during night hours to warn of impending Israeli strikes. Forced evacuation warnings typically come in the middle of the night when city residents are not usually monitoring social media, leading locals to shoot into the air in southern Beirut suburbs upon becoming aware of the warnings.
️ In southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes were reported in the al-Shahabiya district of Tyre. Al Jazeera Arabic also reported Israeli air attacks on the city of Nabatieh, though no immediate casualty reports were available from those strikes. Hezbollah on Wednesday claimed its fighters engaged in armed confrontations with advancing Israeli troops in the town of Dahira in far southern Lebanon. The group has also been carrying out aerial attacks in northern Israel.
️ Israeli ground troops continued to push deeper into Lebanese territory in a ground offensive north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, with the declared intent of creating a buffer zone and pushing back Hezbollah. The army issued another evacuation threat on Thursday for residents of southern Lebanon, urging them to "continue evacuating to the north of the Litani River" and warning that "anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities, or combat means endangers their life."
️ Al Jazeera correspondent Rory Challands, reporting from Amman, said "the fear among the Lebanese is that whatever the Israeli military is doing in southern Lebanon is not temporary and that it could be a more long-term holding of territory, or something more akin to an invasion."
️ A strike was also reported in northern Lebanon at the Beddawi refugee camp near the city of Tripoli, far from where most Israeli attacks on Lebanon have occurred. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said the attack killed at least two people. Local sources in the Palestinian refugee camp told Al Jazeera that a Hamas official was killed in what appeared to be a targeted assassination.
️ Approximately 75 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since Monday, with more than 400 wounded and tens of thousands displaced. Israeli forces bombed the Comfort Hotel on the border of Hazmieh and Baabda, which are part of greater Beirut, on Wednesday. An Israeli strike in Baalbek near the Syrian border killed at least five people.
Source: www.aljazeera.com