Three dead in Israeli airstrike in Beirut as cross-border fire intensifies | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict
Lebanon's Health Ministry says at least three people have been killed and 17 wounded in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that five children were among the victims of an attack on a building on Jamous Street in southern Beirut on Friday.
The agency said an F-35 aircraft struck the residential area with two strikes.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted attack” in the Lebanese capital, claiming to have hit key Hezbollah facilities in Dahiyeh.
“The Israeli army carried out a targeted attack in Beirut. At this time, there are no changes in the defensive guidelines of the Home Front Command,” he said, without providing further details.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Dahiyeh is considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
“This is a significant escalation. We are receiving reports that this could be a targeted killing,” he said.
“This is not the first time that a southern Beirut suburb has been attacked, but images emerging from the scene show a building almost completely destroyed, so civilian casualties are likely.”
Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel with 140 rockets, a day after the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for a massive bombing attack, the Israeli military and the Iran-backed group said.
Israel's military said the rockets came in three waves on Friday afternoon and targeted locations along the devastated border with Lebanon.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have soared days after two days of sabotage attacks blamed on Israel that detonated explosives on thousands of communications devices, killing at least 37 people and wounding nearly 3,000, including civilians.
But Hezbollah said the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli attacks on villages and homes in southern Lebanon.
The group claimed to have fired “Katyusha rocket salvos” at at least six Israeli army “headquarters” and bases, including a “main air defense base.”
“Some 140 rockets were fired from Lebanon in one hour starting at 1:02 p.m. (10:02 GMT),” an Israeli military spokesman told AFP news agency on Friday.
Israel's Kan public broadcaster estimated the number of rockets at about 150.
Videos from northern Israel posted online showed rockets intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system, as sirens could be heard in the background.
The Israeli military said the rocket barrage caused no injuries and that rescue services were working to put out fires sparked by falling debris.
He listed the areas attacked as the occupied Golan Heights, the Upper Galilee region and the city of Safed.
The military said its air defenses shot down some of the rockets, while others fell in open areas.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera's Imran Khan said that “throughout the morning, there have been these exchanges of fire” in towns on both sides of the line dividing the two countries.
The fire came after the Israeli military said it had attacked dozens of rocket launchers overnight that were ready to be used against Israel.
For nearly a year, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanese-Israeli border in support of Hamas. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have also been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting.
Khan described Israel's overnight strikes in Lebanon as the “biggest” since hostilities began in October, following the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel that sparked its war in the Gaza Strip.
Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute, said Israel's incursion into Beirut's southern district marks a “dangerous escalation” that brings the region closer to all-out war.
“(The situation) is outside the rules of engagement that prevailed,” Nader told Al Jazeera, referring to cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon targeting military targets.
“We are not in a give and take, we are in an open war.”
