BEIRUT: Lebanese state media said airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs late Friday after Israel issued evacuation orders.
The strikes brought down entire buildings in the area, according to the Reuters news agency. Neighborhoods in the area were mostly empty of residents, with most having fled in past weeks.
At least three people were killed and 30 injured earlier Friday in an Israeli airstrike on Tyre, a southern port city. There was no evacuation warning issued by the Israeli army, which said it was targeting Hezbollah “intelligence and command and control complexes.”
Also Friday, Israel said it was opening a new humanitarian aid crossing into the Gaza Strip amid mounting U.S. pressure to get more assistance to Palestinians struggling with shortages of food and shelter since the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel did not say when the crossing would open.
In a joint statement Friday, the Israel Defense Forces and COGAT, the agency coordinating Israeli government activities in occupied territories, said they were preparing to open the Kissufim crossing.
Kissufim is a small border crossing into southern Gaza near Kibbutz Kissufim, one of the sites attacked by Hamas in its October 7, 2023, terror assault on Israel that sparked the war.
In that attack, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been designated as terror groups by the United States, the U.K. and other Western countries.
Kissufim has mostly been unused except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
(VOA)
Comment