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Israel Strikes Southern Leba 05/28 06:32
Israel's air force carried out an airstrike on a southern suburb of the
capital, Beirut, Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military said.
BEIRUT (AP) -- Israel's air force carried out an airstrike on a southern
suburb of the capital, Beirut, Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military said.
It was not immediately clear who was the target of the airstrike on the
suburb of Choueifat and videos from the area showed white smoke billowing from
a residential neighborhood. The area is close to Beriut's international airport.
The strike came amid an escalation in southern Lebanon where Israeli troops
have crossed the Litani River over the past days and issued a warning for
residents to leave much of the area.
A strike on a Beirut suburb in early May killed a military official with
Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
BEIRUT (AP) -- The Israeli military early Thursday pounded Lebanon's
fourth-largest city, killing at least 14 people across the south of the country
in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of crucial
talks in Washington.
Among those killed in the flurry of strikes were five women and children and
a Lebanese soldier. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese
Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency.
An Israeli soldier meanwhile was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in
northern Israel, the Israeli military said.
The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
announced an expansion in the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon, apparently
sparked by Hezbollah's use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck
Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel's northern border towns.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security
talks on Friday in the U.S. capital. The talks have extended a nominal
ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since
intensified, while sparing the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran,
which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with
Washington brokered by Pakistan.
Before the attacks on Thursday, Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay
Adraee issued warnings to eight buildings in the coastal city of Tyre along the
Mediterranean and surrounding neighborhoods. Many people have fled the area.
Further north in the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment
building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and wounding
21 others, among them five children. Among the killed was Hossan Zeidan who
once was a correspondent for Iran's Arabic-language al-Aalam television.
Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived across the street from the building in Sidon,
woke to the sound of the explosion.
"I was in my room when part of the wall and shattered glass fell on me, and
everything was thrown into chaos," he said. "This building that was hit had six
apartments occupied by poor families who had fled from the south to escape the
attacks there, only to be hit here."
In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car with a
family that was fleeing, killing six people, of which four were two children
and their parents, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Another drone strike that
came without warning killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of
the attack was not immediately clear, NNA reported.
Elsewhere near the city of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese military said a soldier
was killed in an Israeli drone strike while he was driving his motorcycle.
The Israeli military said Thursday that a soldier in northern Israel was
killed in a Hezbollah drone attack and two reservists were wounded.
Hezbollah has claimed dozens of drone and rocket attacks that it says
targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The group said
Thursday it has launched several attacks on Israeli troops and tanks that have
crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, as
close-range fighting continues.
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between
Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into
northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war
began.
At least 3,269 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of
the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,800 wounded.
According to Netanyahu's office, at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense
contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon and two civilians have
been killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.
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