By Laila Bassam and Mohamed Azakir
BEIRUT, March 18 (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes in Beirut killed at least six people on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, shaking the heart of the Lebanese capital as Israel intensified its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Israeli air strikes also pounded the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, where Reuters footage showed explosions lighting up the night sky.
While most Israeli strikes in the Beirut area have been on the southern suburbs, Israel has also launched a number of attacks in central areas of the capital since Lebanon was dragged into the war in the Middle East on March 2.
An airstrike around 1:30 a.m. (2330 GMT) destroyed several floors of an apartment block in Beirut’s Zuqaq al-Blat district, while a strike in the nearby Basta district tore through at least two floors of a building.
Later, at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), a more powerful strike destroyed an entire building in the Bachoura neighbourhood – an area close to downtown Beirut that was also targeted by Israel last week.
ISRAELI WARNING
Ahead of the Bachoura strike, the Israeli military issued a warning on social media highlighting a building and saying it intended to act against what it said was a Hezbollah facility in the area. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the Bachoura strike.
No warning was issued ahead of the strikes in Zuqaq al-Blat and Basta, in which the Lebanese health ministry said six people were killed and 24 wounded.
The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in the Bachoura and Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhoods last week – both near the headquarters of the Lebanese government in Beirut’s downtown district.
More than 900 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks since Hezbollah entered the regional war in support of Tehran on March 2, and more than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes, Lebanese authorities say.
There have been no reported fatalities in Israel as a result of Hezbollah’s rocket and drone attacks, while the Israeli military has said two of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon during the offensive.
Israel carried out more deadly airstrikes in eastern and southern areas of Lebanon – parts of the country where Hezbollah holds sway and which have also faced heavy Israeli bombardment since March 2.
Four people were killed in an airstrike on the city of Baalbeck in eastern Lebanon. In the south, 10 people were killed in airstrikes in three different locations, the state news agency reported, citing the health ministry.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Ahmed Kerdi and Mohamed Azakir in Beirut; Enas Alashray in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Jamie Freed, Kevin Buckland, Michael Perry and Lincoln Feast.)
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