Israel has threatened to take Lebanese land as it ramped up airstrikes in the heart of Beirut, amid growing fears the Middle East conflict is spiralling out of control.
Later Israeli jets bombed the busy Bachoura neighbourhood multiple times on Thursday, claiming it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.
The latest strikes came just hours after Israel launched its heaviest night of bombing on the capital since the conflict with Hezbollah began 10 days ago.
Aircraft roared above Beirut and fiery explosions lit up the sky overnight, with Israel saying it struck nearly a dozen locations in the southern suburbs in half an hour alone.
At least 12 people were killed and 28 wounded in a separate salvo along the capital’s iconic waterfront, where displaced families forced to flee their homes were sleeping rough.
It followed a hefty barrage of rockets from Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which said it launched dozens of rockets and drones on northern Israel as part of a “series of operations”.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun had sought urgent talks with Israel to halt the strikes and the spiralling conflict.
More than 810,000 people in Lebanon have already been uprooted, a quarter of them children, and 630 have been killed.
But Israel defence minister, Israel Katz, announced on Thursday that after Hezbollah’s attacks, the army would expand its operations into Lebanon, threatening further escalation.
The military later doubled the zone Israel said residents should leave in the south of the country: forcing residents to move up to the Zahrani river.
It also ordered an evacuation of a central Beirut neighbourhood, before pounding it with air strikes.
“I warned the Lebanese president that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern settlements and firing at Israel, we will take the territory and do it ourselves,” Katz added.
Israel’s escalating assault on Lebanon came after Dr Hanan Balkhy, director of the UN health agency, warned of an “unprecedented, long lasting impact” on the region if the hostilities continue to grow.
“It can spin out of control and lead to even more damage through a chemical, nuclear or radiological war, which will have an unprecedented, long lasting impact on the environment and on people that will go beyond the countries involved,” Dr Balkhy told the Independent.
