ADDS DETAILS, CHANGES DECK
By Naim Berjawi
BEIRUT (AA) – Israel launched fresh airstrikes in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut early Wednesday after issuing orders for residents to evacuate.
Warplanes carried out strikes in several neighborhoods in southern Beirut, including Haret Hreik, Chyah, Choueifat, Er-Rouaiss and Jamous, according to an Anadolu reporter.
Billows of smoke were seen rising from the targeted areas.
No information is available on casualties or damage.
The strikes followed an order by the Israeli army to civilians to clear out of buildings allegedly used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in Beirut’s southern suburb.
The army’s Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, published maps alongside the order, asking residents to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites.
The latest attacks came shortly after Iran fired around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid heightened tensions between the two regional arch-rivals.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) said the attack was in response to the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoshan.
Haniyeh was killed in an attack in Tehran in July, while Nasrallah and Nilforoshan were killed in an airstrike in the Lebanese capital Beirut last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran made a “big mistake” with its missile attack and “will pay for it.”
Since Sept. 23, Israel has launched massive airstrikes against what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, killing more than 1,073 people and injuring over 2,950 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The top leadership of Hezbollah was killed in the Israeli assaults.
The Israeli army said early Tuesday that it started ground operations against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is a major ally of Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,600 people, most of them women and children, following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.
The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.