This Sunday, November 17, the Israeli army ordered residents of three areas of the southern suburbs of Beirut to evacuate. A usual warning before airstrikes.
The Israeli army ordered this Sunday, November 17, residents of three areas of the southern suburbs of Beirut, where it believes there are installations of the Islamist movement Hezbollah, to evacuate “immediately”, a usual warning before airstrikes.
“You are near Hezbollah-affiliated facilities and interests, against which the Israel Defense Forces will act in the near future,” the army said in a message to residents of Hadath Beirut, Burj al -Barajneh and Chiyah, in the southern suburbs of the capital.
The official Lebanese agency NNA also reported an air raid and artillery bombardment on the town of Al-Khiyam (southeast).
Israeli soldier killed in Gaza
On another front, in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, where Israel is fighting the Islamist movement Hamas, at least 24 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, according to local Civil Defense. On the Israeli side, the army announced on Sunday the death of a 21-year-old soldier in the north of the Gaza Strip.
In Israel, two flares landed on Saturday in the courtyard in front of the private residence in Caesarea (center) of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not there, announced the Israeli security services, who spoke of a “dangerous escalation” .
A powerful armed movement accused by its detractors of constituting a “state within a state”, Lebanese Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, one day after the attack carried out by this Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7 2023, which started the war in Gaza.
After weakening Hamas and after a year of spiraling cross-border violence, Israel moved the main war front to Lebanon, launching on September 23 an intense campaign of destructive and deadly bombings mainly against Hezbollah strongholds.
On Saturday, relentless airstrikes targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, located near the Lebanese capital's international airport, according to local media.
Synagogue affected in Haifa
In the east of the country, six people including three children died in a strike, according to the Ministry of Health. In southern Lebanon, bordering northern Israel, several towns, including Tyre, and villages were the target of intense strikes. Two rescuers died, according to the ministry.
The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers” in the Tire region.
The only faction to retain its weapons at the end of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), in the name of “resistance” against Israel, Hezbollah, created and financed by Iran, has established itself as an essential political force in the Lebanon.
Israel says it wants to put Hezbollah and Hamas, two allies of Iran, its sworn enemy, out of harm's way. He says his goal in Lebanon is to keep Hezbollah away from the border regions and to stop its rocket attacks that have displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Despite the hard blows inflicted on Hezbollah, several of whose leaders were killed, the movement claimed to have hit an Israeli tank with “a missile” in southern Lebanon and fired new rockets against northern Israel on Saturday, notably against bases military personnel in and around the city of Haifa.
The army reported around 80 projectiles fired during the day from Lebanon. In Haifa, a synagogue was hit and two civilians injured.
