One of the strikes triggered a loud explosion which was heard across much of the capital, witnesses said.
Israeli military front man Avichay Adraee had warned residents to evacuate the southern suburbs of Burj al-Barajneh, Laylaki and Haret Hreik in a post on X.
"You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, against which the (military) will act in the near future," Adraee said, as a speech by Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
was being broadcast.
Earlier Wednesday, Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...'s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in the east and the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
An AFP correspondent in the eastern city of Baalbek reported intense strikes in and around the city.
Israel's army had issued evacuation warnings for Nabatiyeh but not for the Bekaa Vally.
The Israeli army said Hezbollah had fired about 120 projectiles across the border.
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Meanwhile Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes in southern Beirut targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, following a day of long-range rocket fire on Israel, while the IDF chief of staff said the military must prepare to expand the Lebanon ground operation.
In a statement, Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the IDF’s Tzrifin base, located south of Ben Gurion Airport, in the morning attack. The bases house a number of IDF units, including several training schools and a logistics center.
On Wednesday evening, the IDF announced that Israeli fighter jets had struck a series of Hezbollah sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day. According to the IDF, the targets included Hezbollah command rooms, weapon depots and other infrastructure. All of the Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the military said, accusing the terror group of using human shields. Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Wednesday that the military must prepare to expand the ongoing ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Alongside the diplomatic attempt to reach agreements in Lebanon, we need to continue formulating the plans for the continuation of the fighting in Lebanon, including expanding and deepening the [ground] maneuver, and we will activate these plans as needed,” Halevi said during an assessment, in remarks provided by the IDF.
He added that the IDF “continues to strike Hezbollah targets according to plan in the entire region, in southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, Beirut and Syria.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies out of the rubble after a late-night Israeli strike on an apartment building in the town of Barja, Lebanon’s Civil Defense service said Wednesday. It remained unclear if there were any survivors or bodies still trapped under the rubble following the Tuesday night airstrike, which came without warning. There was no statement from the military and the strike’s intended target also was unknown. Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said some of the neighbors have reported there are still people missing.
The military has said that it only targets terror infrastructure in Lebanon and that Hezbollah routinely uses residential buildings to store arms.
Barja, a town just north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has not been regularly targeted so far in the conflict.
Amid the ongoing operation, the IDF on Wednesday called on civilians near four buildings in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh to immediately evacuate ahead of airstrikes. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published maps alongside the announcement, which call on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and assets, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” Adraee said.
The Lebanese health ministry announced on Monday that the country’s death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war had crossed 3,000. The figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups have also been reported killed in Lebanon.