On Wednesday, Israel launched its second attack in central Beirut since Lebanon became embroiled in the Middle East war, raising the death toll in the country to more than 630 people.
In New York, about 30 countries that support United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon expressed concern about the fighting in the country. Lebanon became a frontline in the wider conflict last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Despite Israel’s pre-war ceasefire agreement with Iran-backed Hezbollah in 2024, Israel has continued to launch airstrikes in Lebanon and send ground troops to the Lebanese border areas, an offensive that has killed 634 people, including 91 children, according to authorities.
Israel’s special envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on Wednesday that Israeli forces would continue to operate in Lebanon “as long as we face threats.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said “the enemy targeted an apartment in the Aisha al-Bakkar area of ​​central Beirut,” a densely populated neighborhood near one of the city’s largest shopping malls.
AFP’s live broadcast captured the sound of the airstrike before a fireball erupted in an apartment in the multi-storey residential building.
AFP reporters saw destroyed walls on the seventh and eighth floors of the building, damaged cars nearby and security forces at the scene.
When the strike happened, “I ran from room to room, pulled my wife and daughter out of the room, hid them behind the wall, and then the second strike happened,” said Fawzi Asmar, the owner of a bakery on the same street.
Civil protection paramedic Samer Knio said glass and debris fell on his team as they evacuated the injured, “but God protected us”.
– “Who do I blame?” –
Lebanese authorities said on Wednesday that some 816,000 people were registered as displaced, with about 126,000 of them living in collective shelters.
Some residents feared they would be targeted by Israeli air strikes targeting people seeking refuge nearby.
“We don’t know who they’re targeting. Maybe it’s someone connected to something, maybe not,” said 46-year-old Amal Hisham.
“Who do I blame? Who do I not blame?”
The Health Ministry announced that this was the second attack in central Beirut, following an attack on an apartment in an Israeli seaside hotel days earlier that initially injured four people, saying it targeted officials in Iranian foreign operations.
Iran later said the attack killed four diplomats.
Senior U.N. officials and member states called for an end to the fighting in Lebanon at a Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday.
“We, the UN peacekeeping force-contributing countries in Lebanon, and several other member states are deeply alarmed by the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon,” French Ambassador to the United Nations Jérôme Bonafon told reporters before the meeting.
– Red Cross Paramedic –
Also on Wednesday, Israeli forces resumed attacks on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut after issuing new evacuation warnings.
AFP live footage showed thick smoke billowing from the area after the attack.
Israel also continued to launch airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, with the state news agency reporting attacks in multiple areas.
Eight people were killed in a strike by the Ministry of Health in the southeastern Bint Jbeil region, with NNA reporting that the death toll included five members of a family.
The ministry said attacks in the eastern Lebanese town of Tamnin al-Tahta also killed seven people, while “serial attacks” overnight in the southern town of Qana in the Tyre region killed five people.
In Hennaviyeh, also in the Tyre region, the ministry said an Israeli attack during the night wounded two people and that two people were killed in a subsequent attack, as well as a rescue worker who rushed to the scene.
It also announced that a Red Cross paramedic was injured two days earlier in the same area when “Israeli enemies attacked his ambulance while he was on a rescue mission.”
On Wednesday, AFP reporters saw mourners, some wearing Red Cross uniforms, taking part in a funeral procession for paramedics in the city of Tiel.
Authorities say 15 health care workers have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
