Key Points
- Airstrikes on Beirut have been the most intense since Israel escalated its campaign last month.
- Over 2,000 people have been killed due to Israeli bombings, the majority occurring in the past two weeks.
- The UN says many Israeli strikes appear to violate international law by hitting civilian infrastructure.
Israeli air attacks have battered Beirut’s southern suburbs in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Hezbollah last month.
During Saturday night and into Sunday morning local time, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday, a grey haze hung over the city, and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us, and at first, I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes – we couldn’t count them all – and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israel said its air force had “conducted a series of targeted strikes on a number of weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure sites belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the area of Beirut”.
More than 2,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombing, most of them in the past two weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The ministry said on Sunday that 23 people had been killed on Saturday.
This weekend’s intense bombardment came just ahead of the anniversary of the on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and , according to Israeli figures.
Over 2,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombing mostly in the past two weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Source: AP / Bilal Hussein
The target of Israel’s airstrikes across Lebanon and its ground invasion in the south of the country is the , Iran’s chief ally in the region.
However, the United Nations refugee chief said on Sunday that there were “many instances” where Israeli airstrikes had violated international law by hitting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians in Lebanon.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, while Lebanese authorities say civilians have been targeted.
Israel accuses both Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
Israel’s war in Gaza, launched after the October 7 attacks and aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed nearly 42,000 people, Palestinian authorities say. The coastal enclave lies in ruins.
At least 26 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, the enclave’s government media office said.
The Israeli military said it had conducted “precise strikes on Hamas terrorists”.
