BEIRUT – Israel has carried out at least a dozen air strikes on Beirut on Saturday in the heaviest attack the Lebanese capital witnessed in more than a week. Huge plumes of smoke were seen rising over the city’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah’s main base is located.

In some cases the Israeli military gave warnings to residents to get out, but not much time – in one place just a few minutes. Damage and casualties were still being assessed, but at least one multi-storey building had been completely destroyed. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities and its intelligence headquarters command centre in Dahieh.

Also on Saturday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa and areas to its north. One man was killed by shrapnel, Israeli medics said. After three quiet days in Beirut, the southern suburbs were once again thundering with the sound of Israeli air strikes on Saturday. Thick, billowing smoke, black at first, then grey, rose from several neighbourhoods, darkening the sky. Two of the strikes were close to Beirut’s airport, which is still being used for scheduled civilian flights.

In the space of one hour, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued three urgent evacuation warnings to residents in several districts in the area. Israeli forces were also continuing to target areas outside of Beirut. North of the city, one couple was filmed trying to escape a suspected Israeli drone. They stopped their car on the side of a highway and ran into the undergrowth, but were killed by a reported missile strike, according to Lebanese state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Elsewhere in Lebanon, NNA reported that five people were killed – including a local mayor – in an Israeli strike in the eastern Bekaa Valley region. Several others were wounded in what the NNA said was a strike on a residential apartment. Israel said it is hitting targets in Lebanon linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The latest Israeli strikes come after the IDF said more than 100 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon.

A drone also targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the northern coastal city of Caesarea on Saturday morning. The prime minister was not home at the time. The previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalated in October 2023 – when the Lebanese militant group fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. US President Joe Biden has said there is a chance of “working towards a ceasefire” in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, but it will be “harder in Gaza”. (BBC)