BEIRUT: Israel continued its bombing of Lebanon on Tuesday after a late-night strike near a Beirut hospital killing 18 people, Lebanon’s state media reported.
The escalating Israeli violence has raised the death toll in Lebanon to at least 1,552 since September 23, according to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. However, authorities warn the actual number could be higher due to incomplete data from impacted areas.
The National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli jets conducted four strikes targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs, areas controlled by Hezbollah. Footage showed thick clouds of smoke billowing over the heavily bombed neighborhood.
The strikes forced Hezbollah to abruptly cancel a press conference after Israeli forces issued an evacuation warning. Shortly after journalists left, Israeli jets hit a location just a few hundred meters from the venue, media reports said.
One particularly devastating Israeli raid leveled an 11-storey apartment complex in the Ghobeiri area of Beirut.
Further south, the Lebanese Red Cross reported that three of its paramedics were injured in Nabatiyeh while carrying out a rescue mission coordinated with UN peacekeepers. The city has been the target of repeated Israeli strikes, with NNA describing a “belt of fire” that razed dozens of residential buildings, shops, and cafes in just 30 seconds.
The strikes were the heaviest bombardment Nabatiyeh has witnessed since the war began. “One street looked like a terrifying battlefield,” NNA reported.
In another attack, the Israeli military bombed Al-Hawsh, a village south of the coastal city of Tyre. Footage from AFPTV captured thick smoke rising from the area.
The devastation followed a deadly Monday in which heavy Israeli shelling killed 63 people and wounded 234, according to health officials. Among the casualties were 18 people, including four children, killed in a strike near the Rafic Hariri Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon’s largest public health facility.
Another 60 people were injured in the densely populated Jnah neighborhood, which has seen an influx of displaced persons fleeing violence in the south.
The Rafic Hariri Hospital suffered damage, with shattered windows and destroyed solar panels, but no major structural harm, according to its director. However, four nearby buildings were flattened by the Israeli attack, with rescue teams still combing through the rubble in search of survivors.
One survivor, Ola Eid, recounted the horrifying moment she witnessed the bombing from her balcony.
“The children were playing in the courtyard. I was tossing them chocolate and candy from my balcony,” Eid said. “Before they could even catch them, the first strike hit, then a second. I saw the children ripped apart.”
The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of storing money in a bunker beneath the nearby Sahel Hospital, an allegation the hospital’s owner has denied.
Journalists were given a tour of the hospital on Tuesday as international calls grow for the protection of Lebanon’s medical infrastructure. Both Sahel and Rafic Hariri hospitals have been treating the wounded from Israeli strikes.
The situation in Lebanon has worsened since Israel expanded its war beyond Gaza last month, vowing to dismantle Hezbollah forces along its northern border.
Hezbollah acknowledged on Tuesday that some of its fighters had been captured but did not provide specific numbers. The Israeli army previously claimed to have taken four Hezbollah fighters prisoner and released footage showing one of them being interrogated.
Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for a drone strike over the weekend targeting the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea.
