Beirut:

Lebanon state media said several Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion following intense strikes the night before.

AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising from Beirut’s south following the strikes and AFP correspondents in the Lebanese capital heard loud bangs.

“Israeli warplanes launched a new strike a short while ago on the Choueifat” area of south Beirut, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

It later reported two Israeli air attacks on Haret Hreik and another on Hadath — both districts in the southern suburbs.

Earlier in the evening, the Israeli army issued calls online to evacuate parts of the Choueifat and Haret Hreik as the military prepared to target Hezbollah positions there.

About an hour later, Israel’s army posted new evacuation orders for the Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath districts of south Beirut.

“You are located near facilities and sites belonging to Hezbollah, which the Israeli Defense Forces will be targeting in the near future,” said the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee in a post on X that included maps of the locations.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli strikes levelled six buildings in south Beirut, state media and AFP footage showed, with Israel’s army saying it had hit Hezbollah weapons production facilities “under and inside civilian buildings”.

On September 23, Israel launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon and later announced ground incursions, following a year of limited cross-border clashes with Hezbollah over the Gaza war.

Since then, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.

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