Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs after first warnings for areas inside the city

Israel began a series of strikes on central Beirut on Tuesday evening, security sources told Reuters, after issuing its first-ever evacuation orders for four areas inside the city itself, hours before a ceasefire was expected to be announced.

The orders, published by the Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on social platform X, were for specific buildings in the Ras Beirut, Mazraa, Msaytbeh and Zoqaq al-Blat neighbourhoods.

They urged residents to get 50 metres away from the buildings, calling them "facilities belonging to Hezbollah" and saying Israel would strike the specific floors where those facilities were located, without identifying the floors.

The first strikes hit Zoqaq al-Blat and Mazraa, the security sources said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had said it would retaliate for any strike on central Beirut with attacks on Tel Aviv.

An Israeli strike earlier on Tuesday hit the densely-populated Noueiri district of the Lebanese capital, with no evacuation warning issued. It killed at least seven people, Lebanon's health ministry said.

Minutes later, at least 10 Israeli strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs. They began approximately 30 minutes after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 20 locations in the area, the largest such warning yet.

As the strikes were under way, Israel's military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a "widespread attack" on Hezbollah targets across the city.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily; Editing by Peter Graff)