Israel attacks the heart of Beirut, killing six people

By Timour Azhari and Ari Rabinovitch

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel bombed central Beirut in the early hours of Thursday, killing at least six people, after its forces on the Lebanese front faced the deadliest day in a year of clashes with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah had.

Israel said it carried out a targeted airstrike on Beirut. Reuters witnesses reported hearing a powerful explosion, and a security source said it was aimed at a building in the central Beirut district of Bachoura, near parliament. The next Israeli attacks took place at the Lebanese government headquarters.

According to Lebanese health authorities, at least six people were killed and seven injured. A photo circulating on Lebanese WhatsApp groups, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a badly damaged building with its first floor ablaze.

Three rockets also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, and loud explosions were heard, Lebanese security officials said. The southern suburbs were subjected to more than a dozen Israeli attacks on Wednesday.

A day after Iran fired more than 180 rockets at Israel, Israel said on Wednesday eight soldiers were killed in ground fighting in southern Lebanon as its troops invaded its northern neighbor.

The Israeli military said regular infantry and tank units joined its ground operations in Lebanon on Wednesday, as the Iranian missile attack and Israel's promise of retaliation raised concerns that the oil-producing Middle East could be drawn into a wider conflict.

Hezbollah said its fighters attacked Israeli forces in Lebanon. The movement reported clashes on the ground for the first time since Israeli forces crossed the border on Monday. Hezbollah said it destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with rockets near the border town of Maroun El Ras.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a condolence video: “We are at the height of a difficult war against the axis of evil in Iran that wants to destroy us.”

“That won’t happen because we stand together and with God’s help we will win together,” he said.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 46 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the south and center of the country in the last 24 hours.

Iran said on Wednesday its missile barrage – its largest attack on Israel yet – was over unless there was further provocation, but Israel and the United States vowed to hit back hard.

US President Joe Biden said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in response to the ballistic missile attack and called on Israel to act “proportionately” against its regional nemesis.

Biden joined a call Wednesday with the leaders of the G7 major powers to coordinate a response, including new sanctions against Tehran, the White House said.

G7 leaders expressed “strong concern” about the crisis in the Middle East but said a diplomatic solution was still feasible and a conflict across the region was in no one's interest, a statement said.

Hezbollah said it repulsed Israeli forces near several border towns and also fired rockets at military posts inside Israel.

The paramilitary group's media chief, Mohammad Afif, said these fighting were only “the first round” and that Hezbollah had enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back Israel.

Israel's addition of infantry and armored troops from the 36th Division, including the Golani Brigade, the 188th Armored Brigade and the 6th Infantry Brigade, suggested that the operation could go beyond limited commando attacks.

The military said its attack was aimed primarily at destroying tunnels and other infrastructure on the border and that there were no plans for a broader operation against the Lebanese capital Beirut in the north or major cities in the south.

1.2 million Lebanese displaced

Still, it issued new evacuation orders for about two dozen towns along the southern border and directed residents to move north of the Awali River, which flows east-west about 60 km (37 miles) north of the Israeli border.

According to the Lebanese government, more than 1,900 people have been killed and over 9,000 injured in nearly a year of cross-border fighting in Lebanon, with most of the deaths occurring in the last two weeks.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said about 1.2 million Lebanese had been displaced by Israeli attacks.

Malika Joumaa from Sudan was forced to seek refuge in St. Joseph's Church in Beirut after being evicted from her home near Sidon on the southern Lebanon coast with her husband and two children.

“It is good that the church has offered to help. We wanted to stay on the road; Where would we have gone?”

Iran described Tuesday's rocket attack as a response to Israel's killings of militant leaders, including Nasrallah, attacks against the group in Lebanon and Israel's war against Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.

There were no fatalities in Israel from the rocket attack, but one person died in the occupied West Bank.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari in Beirut; Parisa Hafezi in Istanbul; Phil Stewart, Jeff Mason and Idrees Ali in Washington; Michelle Nichols in New York; Adam Makary, Jaidaa Taha and Enas Alashray in Cairo; and Tala Ramadan, Jana Choukeir and Jack Kim in Berlin, Elwely Elwelly and Clauda Tanios in Dubai and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai;