Israeli Drones Hover over Beirut and Its Suburbs

Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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Israeli Drones Hover over Beirut and Its Suburbs

Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli reconnaissance drones hovered at a low altitude on Saturday flying over the Lebanese capital Beirut and several other areas.
Lebanese media said the planes flew over the southern suburbs of Beirut, Bchamoun, Aramoun, Khaldeh, Choueifat, and other surrounding areas.

Cautious calm prevailed in the southern suburbs of Beirut one day after an Israeli airstrike targeted a building in the area.
Israel on Friday carried out its first major airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs in months, retaliating for an earlier rocket launch from Lebanon in the most serious test of a shaky ceasefire deal agreed in November.
Israel said the strike had targeted a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, that Israel said was a drone storage facility belonging to the Iranian-backed group.
The south Beirut airstrike was heard across the Lebanese capital and produced a large column of black smoke. It followed an evacuation order by Israel's military for the neighborhood, and three smaller targeted drone strikes on the building intended as warning shots, security sources told Reuters.

 



Hamas Says It Is Engaged in ‘Fierce Fighting’ in Gaza’s Rafah

Palestinian men walk near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinian men walk near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hamas Says It Is Engaged in ‘Fierce Fighting’ in Gaza’s Rafah

Palestinian men walk near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinian men walk near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Hamas fighters were engaged in "fierce fighting" with Israeli soldiers on Thursday in the south of the Gaza Strip near Rafah, the Palestinian group said.

The statement, issued on Telegram, suggests that Hamas is still active in areas where the Israeli military has expanded its control, more than 19 months after the start of Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza.

In a later statement, it said fighters ambushed an Israeli 12-man force inside a house in the Tanur neighborhood in the eastern Rafah area with two anti-personnel and anti-armor rockets, killing and wounding several soldiers.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Hamas claim.

The group has rarely reported fighting around Rafah in recent months, with most clashes reported in the eastern area of the nearby city of Khan Younis and northern parts of the coastal territory.

Israel said earlier this month it would further extend its offensive in Gaza.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a fragile, US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for six weeks.