Massive blasts in Beirut after renewed Israeli air strikes

[Pelican Press 0]

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Massive blasts in Beirut after renewed ******** air strikes

Moment giant explosions seen near Beirut airport

Apparent ******** ******** has caused large explosions just outside Beirut’s international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city.

It is not clear what was the target, but the airport borders the Dahieh area – Hezbollah’s stronghold in the capital.

Elsewhere, the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers had been ******* in the country’s south as ******** forces pressed on with their invasion against Hezbollah and ordered another 20 towns and villages to evacuate.

The ******** military has not commented, but did say its troops had ******* Hezbollah fighters near the border. Hezbollah said it had targeted ******** troops on both sides of the frontier.

The two fatal attacks on the Lebanese army soldiers were just hours apart on Thursday, the third full day of the invasion.

In the first incident, the army said, one soldier was ******* and another was wounded “as a result of an aggression by the ******** ****** during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village”.

The Red Cross said four of its volunteers were also lightly wounded, and that their movements had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers.

The army said that in the second incident another soldier was ******* “after the ******** ****** targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”.

“The personnel at the post responded to the sources of *****,” the Lebanese army added, marking a rare involvement in a conflict in which it has not engaged.

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The news came as the ******* Defense Forces (IDF) told residents of another two dozen towns and villages in the south, including the regional capital of Nabatieh, to leave immediately for their own safety.

Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which ***** about 30km (18 miles) from the border.

Before the invasion, ******* had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.

Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme’s country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.

“There is ****** smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there’s a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”

“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There’s traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”

Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.

‘It’s still a scene of chaos’ – BBC reporter outside Beirut building hit by ******** strike

*******’s latest air strikes on Beirut come 24 hours after a residential building in the centre of the capital was hit. A civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah also said seven of its first responders were among nine people ******* in the strike.

Lebanon’s health minister later said more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been ******* by ******** ***** in the past three days.

Two weeks of ******** strikes and other attacks targeting Hezbollah have ******* more than 1,300 people across Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to local authorities.

******* went on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a ********** organisation by *******, the US, the *** and other countries.

The IDF also announced on Thursday that its aircraft had struck 200 Hezbollah “********** targets” in southern Lebanon and elsewhere overnight, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. About 15 Hezbollah fighters were ******* when the municipality building in Bint Jbeil was hit, it said.

Later, it said a structure housing three Hezbollah commanders had been destroyed during a ****** operation carried out by the air force and infantry.

Hezbollah said on Thursday evening that its fighters had “repelled ******* attempts” by ******** commandos to advance into some border villages during the day.

The group also said it had targeted “****** gatherings” and homes on the other side of the frontier, while also continuing to ***** rockets deep into northern *******.

The IDF said more than 230 projectiles had been launched into ******** territory over the course of the day. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, and there were no casualty reports.

The communities sitting along *******’s northern border fence are now a closed military zone.

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Dean Sweetland said his house near *******’s northern border shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon

Dean Sweetland, a former British soldier who moved to ******* eight years ago, is one of the few people still living in a near-empty kibbutz within sight of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.

He told the BBC that his house shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon, some of them intercepted by *******’s air-defences overhead.

“We can’t continue this for another year, having Hezbollah sitting on our border just waiting to do an October 7th on us,” he said, referring to ******’s deadly ******* on southern ******* last year that triggered the Gaza war.

“But my son is in the army, and do we want our kids to be in there, slaughtered, where Hezbollah has been waiting for us to go in for nearly 20 years?”

“It’s not going to be pretty,” he continued, “but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”

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