Israeli military forces carried out a new wave of attacks on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, sending enormous plumes of black smoke billowing over parts of the city. The strikes targeted central Beirut’s Bashoura neighbourhood as well as the southern suburbs. The Israeli military also issued a warning to evacuate a building in Zuqaq al-Blat, another area in the city centre, indicating increased pressure on civilians.
The targeting of central Beirut marks an escalation in over a week and a half of intensified Israeli bombing across Lebanon. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, these attacks have killed at least 687 people and wounded more than 1,500. Lebanese authorities said more than 800,000 people have been forcibly displaced due to the violence, leading to a severe migration crisis in the country.
The Israeli military has launched a widespread aerial and ground assault against its northern neighbour, describing the offensive as a campaign against Hezbollah. However, the Lebanese armed group has responded with waves of rocket strikes against Israel, including a large salvo coordinated with Iran. The United Nations and humanitarian groups emphasized that Lebanese civilians, including hundreds of thousands forced out of their homes, are bearing the brunt of the escalating conflict.
Many of those displaced from southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area known as Dahiyeh, are staying in schools-turned-shelters, with relatives, or in tents along the waterfront. At least 12 people were killed in an Israeli double-tap strike earlier on Thursday in the seafront area of Ramlet al-Baida, where displaced families were sleeping in tents. Separately, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike on a Lebanese University building in Hadath, near Beirut, killed two academics.
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported that the country is grappling with a worsening displacement crisis, with 90 percent of government shelters full. He stated from the capital, “People in those shelters have already seen their homes blown up, particularly those from the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon, so they don’t have homes to go back to. Many people are day labourers and can’t earn any salary. So people are without money, without a home to go back to, and this campaign by Israel and this fight between Israel and Hezbollah show no indication of ending soon.”
Source: www.aljazeera.com