Residents Decry Lethal Israeli Airstrikes on Lebanese City of Sidon

A man removes the debris from a destroyed house that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP)
A man removes the debris from a destroyed house that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP)
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Residents Decry Lethal Israeli Airstrikes on Lebanese City of Sidon

A man removes the debris from a destroyed house that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP)
A man removes the debris from a destroyed house that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP)

The day after airstrikes shook Sidon, the Lebanon coastal city's streets were veiled in dust and rubble. Six people were killed and 37 were wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Excavators sifted through the debris, loading trucks with remnants of destroyed homes. Residents cleared shattered glass and plaster from gaping walls. The airstrikes hit two residential buildings opposite Sayyed Shohada, a Hezbollah-linked complex.

Local resident Abdullah Habli called the attack “a massacre against civilians.”

“This building they bombed had no one in it. It housed poor, struggling people. This street is an ordinary residential street with ordinary, civilian residents. There are no weapons here,” Habli added.

Before the strikes, Israel had warned 16 southern villages to evacuate north of the Awwali River — but Sidon received no such warning.

“I haven’t seen any military activity here at all," said Mahmoud Al Ghoul, displaced from Mays al Jabal in the Marjeyoun province.

“(Israel) always claims Hezbollah fighters or weapons are in the area. But many of the areas it strikes have no Hezbollah, no Amal movement, or any other party,” said Ali Al-Amin, who had been displaced from Tyre, another Lebanese city.



Israel Warns People to Evacuate from More Areas in East, South Lebanon

Workers remove the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous day that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Bednayel in the Bekaa valley, on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Sam SKAINEH / AFP)
Workers remove the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous day that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Bednayel in the Bekaa valley, on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Sam SKAINEH / AFP)
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Israel Warns People to Evacuate from More Areas in East, South Lebanon

Workers remove the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous day that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Bednayel in the Bekaa valley, on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Sam SKAINEH / AFP)
Workers remove the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous day that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Bednayel in the Bekaa valley, on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Sam SKAINEH / AFP)

The Israeli military warned people to evacuate from more areas of the eastern city of Baalbek and south Lebanon, including a built-up Palestinian refugee camp.

Israeli airstrikes, meanwhile, killed at least ten people in different parts of the country on Thursday.

The Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the port city of Tyre is one of several dating back to the 1948 Mideast war, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel.

Israel invaded Lebanon at the start of October, after nearly a year of trading fire with Hezbollah. The group began firing rockets, missiles and drones on northern Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza. Iran backs both groups.

Israel has warned people to evacuate from large areas of the country, including major cities in the south and east. Over a million people have already fled their homes.

Israeli strikes killed seven people in eastern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News agency. Another strike killed a man on a motorcycle on the coastal highway between Tyre and Sidon.

The news agency also reported a strike on a car on a main highway running through the mountains outside the capital, Beirut. It said the strike in Araya closed the highway, diverting traffic through nearby villages.

Two people were killed in the attack, media reports said.