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.
A view shows rubble from damaged buildings, in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon November 26, 2024. Reuters/Ali Hankir
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)
Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily
Israel conducted three airstrikes in the Syrian capital on Sunday against a security complex and a government research centre which it has said in the past was used by Iran to develop missiles, two regional security sources told Reuters on Sunday.
Israel has watched the rapid overthrow of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a mixture of hope and concern as officials weigh the consequences of one of the most significant strategic shifts in the Middle East in years.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said the situation in Syria, where rebels are pressing a rapid advance that is threatening President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power, was creating a new weakness for militant Lebanese group Hezbollah and for Iran.
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