Israel has threatened to take Lebanese land and to expand its military operations, after launching the heaviest night of bombing on Beirut since the conflict with Hezbollah began 10 days ago.
Aircraft roared above Lebanon’s capital and fiery explosions lit up the sky overnight, with Israel saying it struck nearly a dozen locations in the southern suburbs in half an hour alone.
At least eight people were killed in a separate salvo along the capital’s iconic waterfront, where displaced families forced to flee their homes were sleeping rough.
It followed a hefty barrage of rockets from Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which said it launched dozens of rockets and drones on northern Israel as part of a “series of operations”.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun had sought urgent talks with Israel to halt the strikes and the spiralling conflict. More than 810,000 people in Lebanon have already been uprooted, a quarter of them children, and 630 have been killed.
But Israel defence minister, Israel Katz, announced on Thursday that after Hezbollah’s attacks, the army would expand its operations into Lebanon, threatening further escalation.
“I warned the Lebanese president that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern settlements and firing at Israel, we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” he added.
In Dahiyeh – in the south of Beirut – smoke and dust rose above piles of snarled rebar and concrete: all that was left of the building in the crowded neighbourhood, which is a sweeping Israeli evacuation orders.
Fatima, 48, a mother-of-six and Syrian refugee, was sleeping under tarpaulin just metres away from the strike on Beirut’s waterfront.
She told The Independent her family had been forced to camp on the streets for the last week, after fleeing Dahiyeh, as they had nowhere to go and no money.
“First, we heard the drones circling so low, it was deafening. And that is when they bombed twice in seconds,” she said, breaking into tears.
“There were bodies thrown in the air, we saw severed limbs. One man, a displaced Syrian who I know, was on the ground. Shrapnel had cut him up, there was so much blood.
“All the people were screaming and were terrified. There was so much blood and smoke and fire. It lit up the skies.”
Lebanese soldiers securing the site told The Independent they had to evacuate the area over concerns that one of the missiles had not exploded. Behind the soldiers, two men, wearing what looked like bomb disposal protection kits, were working on the impact site.
Lebanon was dragged into the regional conflict earlier this month when Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, fired at Israel after massive strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader.
The Israeli military said it fired 200 munitions from the air and sea during Wednesday night’s raid, targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, headquarters, as well as members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Lebanon’s unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Since 2 March, Israel has killed 100 members of Hezbollah and its linked groups as well as 60 command and control centres, it said.
Hezbollah said earlier it fired a “salvo of rockets” at northern Israel and a squadron of drones, promising further strikes.
The concern now is that even if US president Donald Trump winds down his operations in Iran, the war between Israel and Hezbollah has only begun.
Dr Hanan Balkhy, regional director of the World Health Organisation, said Lebanon was struggling amid an unprecedented financial collapse, damage from the last war in 2024 and limited medical supplies.
She said in Lebanon, there have been 25 attacks on health care, resulting in 16 deaths and 29 injuries.
Meanwhile, Lebanese health minister Rakan Nassereddine said at least five hospitals had been forced to close as they were in the direct line of fire or in areas under Israel’s evacuation orders.
Back at the waterfront, Mohamed, a Lebanese father living in his car after he was displaced from the border regions with Israel, said many feared there was no end in sight.
“The bombing was deafening,” he said of the latest attacks. “We have no idea when this is going to end.”
*Additional reporting by Rana Najjar
