Lebanon: New daytime airstrike on Beirut, Israel threatens to "take territory"

Several Israeli strikes targeted a building in the heart of Beirut on Thursday afternoon, AFP journalists reported, as Israel threatened to "take territories" in Lebanon.

The war has claimed more than 687 lives since March 2, including 98 children, and displaced more than 800,000 people, according to the latest official Lebanese figures.

The explosions generated panic and a thick column of black smoke rose from a building in the Bachoura district, located near one of the capital's main business centers, which also houses institutions.

The Israeli army confirmed in a statement that it had "launched a series of strikes against Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Beirut," shortly after an unprecedented evacuation warning in the center of the Lebanese capital. According to the statement, the group had "hidden millions of dollars to finance its activities" beneath the targeted building.

This is the fourth strike on central Beirut - and the first in broad daylight - since Hezbollah dragged the country into regional war with Iran on March 2 by launching missiles at Israel.

A fifth strike on a central district also targeted an office of the Al-Qard al-Hassan financial company, linked to Hezbollah, AFP observed.

"This is a war we did not want; on the contrary, we are working day and night to stop it," Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on television Thursday.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had stated that he had ordered the army to prepare to "extend" its operations in Lebanon.

"I warned the Lebanese president that if his government fails to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing on Israel, we will take territories and do it ourselves," he said.

According to Israel, the Shiite group carried out a coordinated attack with Iran on Wednesday evening, launching some "200 rockets and about 20 drones", combined with ballistic missiles fired by Tehran.

Desolation

Hezbollah also claimed responsibility on Thursday for missile attacks on air defense systems in the Caesarea region (central Israel), where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a residence.

In Beirut, an Israeli strike killed 12 people and injured 28 at dawn on the Ramlet al-Bayda seafront where displaced people from Hezbollah strongholds had flocked, according to the latest official figures.

"We suddenly heard the sound of an explosion," said Aseel Habbaj, a woman carrying her baby, who was sleeping in a tent with her family. She said she "saw dead people lying on the ground."

"We chose this place because we never imagined that Israel would strike" right in the heart of Beirut, said Dalal al-Sayed, 40.

After the first strike, "a second one followed", resulting in "carnage", she said.

An AFP correspondent on the scene saw bloodstains on the sidewalk and shrapnel had hit some tents.

Strikes also targeted Aramoun, a residential area south of Beirut, outside Hezbollah strongholds, on Thursday, killing five and wounding five, according to a new toll from the authorities.

And two teachers were killed on a campus of the Lebanese public university on the edge of the southern suburbs, according to the National News Agency (ANI, official).

The Israeli army continues to strike almost daily the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite group from which a large part of the population has fled.

An AFP photographer witnessed a scene of desolation in the deserted suburb: ruined buildings, some still on fire, rubble littering the streets.

With all diplomatic avenues seemingly blocked, Israel has amassed troops on its border with Lebanon and its army has advanced into several border villages.

The Israeli army on Thursday extended its call to evacuate on the Lebanese side, asking residents to move beyond a river about 40 kilometers from the border.

"The massive population displacement we are seeing here (in Lebanon) is unprecedented," Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told AFP.

"We have recorded some 800,000 people in one week, that's huge," he said from Beirut.