The Israeli military said Thursday it hit Hezbollah weapons production facilities in Beirut’s southern suburbs, in some of the fiercest strikes on the area since the Lebanon war began.
At least 17 raids levelled six buildings, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency, with a huge ball of fire enveloped in a tower of smoke soaring into the night sky.
Israel is fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon and has vowed to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 missile attack.
The war in Lebanon erupted last month, nearly a year after Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza following its October 7, 2023 attack.
The Israeli “air force conducted intelligence-based strikes on several weapons storage and manufacturing facilities belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization" in the southern suburbs of the capital, the Israeli military said.
It said that it had "struck more than 160 Hezbollah targets over the past day, including infrastructure sites across Lebanon.”
The NNA called the nighttime raids on the southern suburbs "the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war.”
Six buildings were destroyed around the neighborhood of Laylaki, the NNA said, including a residential complex hit by four Israeli strikes that caused "a large fire.”
On Thursday, Hezbollah said it launched a "large rocket salvo" at the northern Israeli town of Safed, after vowing to keep firing into Israel until a ceasefire is reached not only in Lebanon but also in Gaza.
