Fighting yesterday raged on two fronts as Israel targeted what it said was a Hezbollah “command center” in the Lebanese capital, while in Gaza rescuers reported 73 people killed in a single airstrike.
The strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed group of attempting to assassinate him by targeting his residence.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said Israel’s strikes on Beirut hit a residential building in Haret Hreik near a mosque and a hospital.
Photo: AFP
The Israeli military said it hit the “command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” and underground weapons facility in Beirut and that it killed three Hezbollah militants in other strikes.
It later said that about 70 projectiles fired from Lebanon crossed into Israel within a matter of minutes, and that it intercepted some of them.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli airstrike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians and injured many others in Beit Lahia in the territory’s north.
The Israeli military said it struck a “Hamas terror target,” adding that the figures given by Gaza authorities “do not align” with its information.
The military pushed on with its offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, where it said its forces “struck approximately 175” targets.
The military said it continued to operate in northern, central and southern parts of Gaza.
“The troops eliminated dozens of terrorists during close-quarter encounters on the ground and aerial strikes” across Gaza, it said.
In southern Lebanon, NNA later said Israeli strikes had targeted dozens of locations, including the city of Nabatiyeh for the third time this week.
It also reported that an Israeli strike hit a center for rescue workers affiliated with Hezbollah in Deir al-Zahrani in southern Lebanon, partially destroying it.
Hezbollah yesterday said it had fired rocket barrages at Israel, including a “big rocket salvo” aimed at an Israeli military base east of the northern town of Safed.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said a drone was launched toward his residence in Caesarea, but he and his wife were away and there were no casualties.
“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake,” the prime minister said.
“Anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price,” he said in comments directed at Tehran and “its proxies,” which include Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a group Israel has been at war with since late last month.
Since then, the war has killed at least 1,454 people in Lebanon, according to a tally of Lebanese Ministry of Public Health figures.
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