Lebanon says 29 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut

Lebanon's health ministry has said that the Israeli strike on central Beirut's working-class Basta district yesterday killed at least 29 people, updating an earlier toll.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Basta al-Fawqa in Beirut killed, in an updated but still not final toll, 29 people and wounded 67 others," the ministry said in a statement.

"Rubble is still being removed" from the strike site, it added.

Lebanese state media has reported two Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, about an hour after the Israeli military posted evacuation calls online for parts of the Hezbollah bastion.

"Israeli warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the Kafaat area," the official National News Agency (NNA) said.

The southern Beirut area has been repeatedly struck since 23 September when Israel intensified its air campaign also targeting Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon's east and south.

It later sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.

The raids "caused massive destruction over a large geographical area" of the Kafaat district, NNA said.

Earlier, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned on social media platform X that the military would strike "Hezbollah facilities and interests" in the Hadath and Burj al-Barajneh districts, also sharing maps of the areas to be evacuated.

Hezbollah fired 250 rockets into Israeli territory-IDF

Meanwhile, Israel's army said Hezbollah fired around 250 projectiles into its territory from Lebanon, with the militant group saying its attacks had targeted the Tel Aviv area and Israel's south.

The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it had "launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of attack drones on the Ashdod naval base" in southern Israel.

Later, it said it fired "a barrage of advanced missiles and a swarm of attack drones" at a "military target" in Tel Aviv, and had also launched a volley of missiles at the Glilot army intelligence base in the city's suburbs.

The Israeli military did not comment on the specific attack claims.

But it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several locations in central and northern Israel, including in the greater Tel Aviv suburbs.

It later reported that "approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation have crossed from Lebanon into Israel".

Some of the projectiles were shot down. The military said the highest number of projectiles, 350, was recorded on 24 September.

Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded, including a man in a "moderate to serious" condition.

Images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel.

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The wave of projectiles follows at least four deadly Israeli strikes in central Beirut in the past week, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

In a speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem had said the response to the recent strikes on the capital "must be expected on central Tel Aviv".

The Lebanese army, meanwhile, said that a soldier was killed and 18 others injured, "including some with severe wounds, as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a Lebanese army centre in Amriyeh".

Though the Lebanese army is not a party to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli strikes have killed 19 Lebanese soldiers in the last two months, authorities have said.

Since 23 September, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops after nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group's 7 October 2023 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.

Lebanon's health ministry says at least 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them since September this year.

The EU's foreign policy chief has warned that Lebanon was "on the brink of collapse" after Israel's intense air campaign.

"Back in September I came and was still hoping we could prevent a full-fledged war of Israel attacking Lebanon.

"Two months later Lebanon is on the brink of collapse," Josep Borell said.

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