Full story
Southern Lebanon strikes
Israel intensified attacks on southern Lebanon, killing at least 16 people, as Lebanese health authorities said an Israeli air strike south of Beirut killed a woman and two children.
“The attack took place at dawn near official buildings, generating thick plumes of smoke as rescuers searched the rubble”
The Al Jazeera report said the strike was the first on the Lebanese capital in three weeks, while the Hürriyet Daily News report said Israel’s military launched an airstrike in the Beirut area on Thursday after a Lebanese military source said an apartment was hit south of the capital.
In Tyre, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto said, "Since midnight, there have been over a dozen strikes on the city of Tyre and its surrounding areas."
Hürriyet Daily News reported that Lebanon’s civil defence agency told AFP that eight strikes had hit Tyre since Wednesday evening, after Israel issued evacuation warnings to residents.
The Al Jazeera report also said the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that Israel’s large-scale forced displacements and continued strikes on urban centres were placing civilians at severe risk and deepening a humanitarian crisis.
Quotes, ceasefire strain
Lebanon and Israel prepared for talks as the violence continued, with Al Jazeera saying a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last month had failed to halt the fighting.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said, "It was just ink on paper. It remained very much an active warzone."
Hürriyet Daily News reported that after heavy strikes earlier Thursday that Lebanese authorities said killed at least 14 people including three children, Israel said it "precisely struck in Beirut", without identifying the target.
The Hürriyet Daily News report also said Hezbollah on Thursday claimed several attacks with rockets and drones on Israeli troops in south Lebanon.
Al Jazeera added that United States-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon were due to resume on Thursday, beginning with technical discussions before moving to broader negotiations in early June, but Israel’s intensification in the past two days cast doubt on diplomacy.
Humanitarian and political stakes
The UN expressed grave concern over Israeli attacks on south Beirut, with the Arabic-language Al Arabiya TV report saying the toll of the Israeli aggression since March 2 had risen to 3,324 martyrs and 10,027 wounded.
Al Arabiya TV quoted UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric saying authorities were "very concerned about the Israeli attacks that targeted south Beirut today."
That same report said Israel’s evacuation calls renewed in the last 48 hours affected hundreds of thousands of people living south of the Zahrani River, including the cities of Tyre and Nabatieh, and that mass shelter centers in Tyre and Sidon were completely full.
Al Jazeera reported that residents were told to evacuate immediately and move north of the Zahrani River, roughly 40km (25 miles) from the Lebanon-Israel border, and that the orders had forced thousands to flee under threat of attack.
In parallel, Al Arabiya TV said the Lebanese Health Ministry announced the death of a woman and two children in the Israeli airstrike on the Choueifat area south of Beirut, after Israel claimed it carried out an attack described as precise in the Beirut area.
