Lebanese official media said Israeli strikes devastated south Beirut on Monday, and health officials reported 31 people killed across the war-ravaged country, most of them in the south.
The Israeli military said in a statement Monday afternoon that it had targeted “about 25 terrorist targets” of Hezbollah across Lebanon, including Nabatieh, Baalbek, the Bekaa Valley and southern Beirut and the city’s outskirts.
AFPTV images showed plumes of smoke billowing over the capital’s southern suburbs following successive warnings by the Israeli military to evacuate beginning in the morning.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported a fourth wave of Israeli raids in south Beirut on Monday evening, saying “enemy warplanes launched attacks on Haret Harik and Shia” districts.
The attacks followed heavy weekend raids in the area, despite international ceasefire efforts.
Early Saturday, at least 29 people were killed in a deadly attack in the densely populated Basta neighborhood of central Beirut, the health ministry said.
Israel’s military said on Monday it had struck a Hezbollah command center there, although an official with the Iran-backed group denied reports that a senior member was targeted.
The NNA reported Israeli attacks on Tire and Nabatieh after Israel issued a warning to evacuate parts of the main southern cities.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday.
A statement listed “casualties in Israeli enemy attacks on a number of Lebanese cities and towns” in the east, south and near Beirut, with most people killed in the south and four in the east.
‘Dangerous conditions’
The NNA also reported “a drone strike targeted a residential complex” in a Druze-majority town on the outskirts of Beirut, without prior evacuation calls.
Lebanon’s Druze community follows a branch of Shia Islam, and its heartland around Mount Lebanon has been largely spared from the current hostilities.
The Education Ministry suspended classes at schools, technical institutes and private higher education institutions in Beirut and several surrounding areas on Monday, citing the “current dangerous conditions”.
Hezbollah claimed an average of more than 50 attacks on Israeli troops, military posts and towns across the border and in southern Lebanon on Sunday. The Israeli military reported 250 projectiles launched into Israel.
On 23 September, Israel intensified its air campaign in Lebanon, primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east and in south Beirut, later sending ground troops across the border.
Israeli ground forces have entered several south Lebanon villages and towns near the border, including Khiyam, where the NNA reported heavy clashes with Hezbollah fighters on Monday.
Meanwhile, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the south of Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Monday it was “gravely concerned” by recent deadly attacks on Lebanese soldiers, which Beirut blamed on Israel.
Although the Lebanese army is not involved in the Israel-Hezbollah war, there have been several deaths in its ranks, including one death on Sunday.
The war has killed at least 3,799 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, the majority of whom have died since September.
Officials on the Israeli side say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.
The United States, the European Union, and the United Nations have all been actively pressuring the parties to accept a ceasefire in recent days.
Israel’s security cabinet “will decide on the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday evening,” an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
