Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday.
More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted in the city, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon within ten minutes, Israel’s military said.
Following the strikes, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X that Hezbollah had moved out of its traditional Shi’ite stronghold in southern Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood to religiously mixed areas elsewhere.
He said Israel’s military would pursue Hezbollah wherever it was.
Most of Wednesday’s strikes were in civilian-populated areas, Israel’s military said. Hours before the attacks, the military had issued warnings for some areas of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon. No such warning was given for central Beirut, which was also hit.
A total of 254 people were killed and over 1,100 wounded across Lebanon, the country’s civil defence service said.
In a statement, Hezbollah condemned what it called Israel’s “barbaric aggression” and said the attacks underscored its right to respond.
Hezbollah had stopped attacking Israeli targets early on Wednesday, three Lebanese sources close to the group told Reuters.
— Cameron Carr, Reuters