Beirut has been rocked by at least a dozen Israeli airstrikes in one day after Tel Aviv said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home.
Lebanese authorities said Israel carried out airstrikes in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh – a densely populated area where Hezbollah has offices. The Israeli military said the attack hit Hezbollah targets.
In some parts of the city, the Israeli military warned residents to flee, but according to the BBC they were not given much time to do so.
At least one high-rise building was completely destroyed by the airstrike, although the number of casualties could not be confirmed.
News of the latest strike emerged after Mr Netanyahu’s His office said a drone targeted his holiday home in the Mediterranean coastal city of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife were there and it was unclear whether the property had been damaged.
Netanyahu said: “The Iranian proxies who today tried to kill me and my wife have made a grave mistake.”
Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the drone attack, but said it carried out several rocket attacks in northern and central Israel.
The attack comes as Israel is expected to respond to attacks earlier this month by Iran, the main backer of Hezbollah and Hamas, both of which Britain has banned as terrorist groups.
Hezbollah said on Friday it plans to send more guided missiles and blow up drones towards Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September and Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon earlier this month.
The Israeli military on Saturday said about 180 projectiles were fired from Lebanon. A 50-year-old man was hit by shrapnel and killed in northern Israel, and four other people were injured, according to Israeli medical services.
In the northern city of Kiryat Ata, one rocket landed. Itzik Billet, commander of the Haifa region, said nine people suffered minor injuries.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli forces shelled a hospital in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, and the attack killed more than 50 people, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and the Associated Press.
Israel and Hamas have both signaled resistance to ending the war in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the main architect of attacks on Israel more than a year ago that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and left 250 others hostage. . About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.
The Israeli military on Saturday distributed leaflets in southern Gaza showing Sinwar’s corpse, blood running down his forehead. The leaflet read: “Sinwar destroyed your lives. Whoever lays down his arms and returns the kidnapped people to us, we will allow him to go and live in peace.”
Hamas has insisted that the hostages will not be released until there is a ceasefire and Israeli forces withdraw. Netanyahu insisted that the Israeli military would fight until the hostages were freed, and would remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
