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05-10-2024
JERUSALEM/ BEIRUT: Fresh explosions are heard in Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, as Israel says it has struck the group’s “intelligence headquarters”.
Overnight Israeli air strikes on central Beirut killed nine people, officials there say; our correspondent in the Lebanese capital says any feeling of safety is vanishing.
Meanwhile, Israel warns more people in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes, including in the major city Nabatieh, saying strikes will continue.
“For your safety, and that of your children, do NOT go back home until further notice,” a Telegram message from the military says.
Also on Thursday, the WHO said that 28 health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the last 24 hours.
Israel began a ground invasion of the south this week; since October last year, Lebanese officials say 1,974 people including 127 children have been killed in Israeli attacks.
Biden rejects suggestion of imminent Israeli strike on Iran
US President Joe Biden has dismissed suggestions of an Israeli strike on Iran being launched today.
Asked by reporters at the White House if the US would allow Israel to respond to Tuesday’s attacks from Iran, Biden said: “First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel. And there is nothing going to happen today.”
Following the large-scale missile attacks launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran will pay for the “big mistake”.
Twenty-eight health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference that many health workers are also “not reporting to duty as they fled the areas where they work due to bombardment”.
Plans to deliver a large shipment of trauma and medical supplies to Lebanon will not be able to go ahead on Friday due to flight restrictions over the country, he added.
The building hosting Hezbollah’s media relations office in Beirut took multiple hits earlier on Thursday, a Hezbollah spokesperson has told media.
The floor where Hezbollah’s office is located was not hit, they said.
Lebanon’s MTV media outlet published what it said was footage of the attack. It shows heavy smoke rising from a building that also houses several shops and businesses. It sits amid other residential buildings in the Lebanese capital.
Israel says it has struck targets belonging to “Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” in Beirut.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes “included terror operatives belonging to the unit”, command centres and “intelligence-gathering means”. The IDF continued that the headquarters direct “Hezbollah intelligence activity” and coordinate “intelligence-gathering”.
Now to Lebanon’s neighbor, Syria, where several images and videos appeared on social media overnight, claiming to show a large explosion near the Hmeimim airbase, roughly 200km north of Damascus.
The base has a history of being used by Russian forces, where two of their servicemen were killed by shelling in December 2017. Days later, Russia also claimed to have thwarted a drone attack at the base.
So far, we have verified one still image. We cross-referenced it to satellite imagery and matched the shape of the road and the layout of the building on the corner. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
