Israel launches several attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs

This is the fourth time Israel has attacked the Lebanese capital since the November ceasefire with Hezbollah.

A series of Israeli strikes have targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, almost an hour after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order to residents in areas that it says held underground facilities used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah for drone production.

This is the fourth time Israel has attacked Beirut since a ceasefire with Hezbollah went into effect in November. It has carried out assassinations and announced strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah sites.

Before the attacks on Thursday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had ordered residents living near buildings in the neighbourhoods of Hadath, Haret Hreik and Borj el-Barajneh in the Dahiyeh suburbs to evacuate.

“You are next to infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah,” Adraee said in a social media post, which included a map of the buildings. The message in Arabic indicated that Israel would soon bomb the area.

After the evacuation order, Lebanese media reported the area was nearly emptied of inhabitants, who had been preparing to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. It was sealed off as “warning strikes” could be heard, the reports said.