• 46 people die in Israeli strikes over 24 hours
• IDF claims striking intel HQ in Beirut
• Hezbollah keeps up cross-border fire; nine Israeli soldiers killed so far

BEIRUT: Israel’s military said on Thursday it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital, as troops battled the group’s fighters near the border and warplanes bombarded their strongholds around the country, killing dozens of people over the past 24 hours.

The Israeli army’s death toll from fighting in southern Lebanon also rose to nine. “Captain Ben Zion Falach, aged 21… fell yesterday (Wednesday), during combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.

Hezbollah also carried out new strikes, targeting what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.

Israel announced this week that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of heavy bombardment of areas across the country where the group holds sway.

The bombing has killed more than 1,000 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic and political crisis.

Israel, which has been launching attacks in Gaza since last year after the Oct 7 attack, says it shifted its focus to secure its northern border and ensure the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah attacks over the past year.

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Hezbollah says it has repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, including with ambushes and in direct clashes. Lebanese security sources say Israeli troops have entered Lebanese territory and been pushed back several times in recent days, without setting up a permanent presence.

Rocket sirens wailed constantly in northern Israeli towns, sending residents running for shelter, as Hezbollah kept up its cross-border fire.

The Israeli military said it hit “targets belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, with a source close to Hezbollah telling AFP the target was an evacuated building that housed the group’s media relations office.

Israel told Lebanese people to evacuate more than 20 villages and the city of Nabatiyeh. “For your own safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and head north of the Awali River. Save your lives,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 46 people were killed and 85 others injured by Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours.

Central Beirut strike

Hezbollah said it fought off a bid by Israeli troops to advance at Fatima’s Gate on the border. It also said it set off two explosive devices against advancing Israeli forces as it kept up its cross-border rocket fire.

The military said an overnight strike killed 15 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil, an area heavily damaged during Lebanon’s last war in 2006.

Later the Lebanese army said one of its soldiers was killed when “the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area” — the third death among its troops in the current escalation — prompting retaliatory fire.

A Lebanese military official said it was the army’s first response to Israeli fire since last October. Israel earlier carried out a deadly air raid in downtown Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, killing seven workers, the service said.

Hassan Ammar, 82, who had been staying in the high-rise building whose walls were partly blown out by the strike after he fled south Lebanon, said: “We are peaceful civilians in our homes.”

Israel has yet to comment on the strike but said it had hit about 200 Hezbollah targets “in Lebanese territory”.

According to Lebanon’s Health Minister Fir­ass Abiad, more than 40 rescuers and firefighters have been killed by Israeli fire in three days.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024