Israeli attacks kill six people in central Beirut as explosions heard in Lebanese capital | Lebanon

Israeli attacks on a central medical center in Beirut have killed at least six people after the Israeli military on the Lebanese front suffered its deadliest day in a year of clashes with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Residents of Beirut heard a rocket flying over the city before hearing the sound of the explosion. Videos showed how the floor of a residential building was burning. Residents in surrounding areas began to flee, quickly leaving on scooters and cars.

The Israeli attack hit a medical center run by the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Organization in the early hours of Thursday. The attack was the second airstrike on central Beirut this week, with most attacks previously confined to suburbs in the city's south.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting Beirut and issued evacuation warnings for various locations throughout the night. 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.

At least six people were killed and seven wounded, Lebanese health authorities said, adding that another 46 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on the city in the past 24 hours.

A day after Iran fired more than 180 rockets at Israel, the entire region waited for Israel's response to the attack. US President Joe Biden said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities as he tries to contain a rapidly escalating regional conflict.

On Wednesday, the IDF announced that eight soldiers were killed in ground fighting in southern Lebanon. The largest group of soldiers from the commando brigade, including an officer, were involved in a clash with Hezbollah in a village north of the Israeli border town of Misgav Am, while two other soldiers from the Golani brigade were killed in a separate incident.

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 will not happen because we stand together and with God's help we will be together.” win.”

A separate attack on the Syrian capital Damascus reportedly killed the son-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah – the Hezbollah leader who died in a massive Israeli attack in Beirut last week. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Hassan Jaafar Qasir was among three people killed in the attack that leveled a building in Mazzeh district, an area controlled by Hezbollah fighters and Iranian corps officers the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is preferred.

Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly killed medics across Lebanon over the past two weeks, including airstrikes that killed 14 emergency workers last weekend. On Monday, six more medics, all members of the Islamic Health Organization, were killed in western Bekaa.

Most of the medics killed by Israeli bombing since the start of the war belonged to Islamic health services, whether Hezbollah or other parties.

International human rights groups have stressed that killing healthcare workers, regardless of their political affiliation, is unlawful as long as they do not participate in or support hostilities.