Israeli Strikes Target Hezbollah in Beirut, Kill Three Militants; 73 Palestinians Dead in Gaza Attack

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said Israel’s strikes hit a residential building in South Beirut’s Haret Hreik area near a mosque and a hospital.

The Israeli military claimed it hit the “command centre of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” and underground weapons facility in Beirut and that it killed three Hezbollah militants in other strikes.

The strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed group of attempting to assassinate him by targeting his residence.

It also came as Israelis marked the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Illustrating the intensity of the fighting, NNA later reported 14 Israeli strikes in the space of 15 minutes on a single border village, Khiam.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Sunday that the military was stepping up its strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon and “destroying them in places that Hezbollah planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel”.

The Lebanese army, which is not fighting in the war, said three of its soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in southern Lebanon.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a residential area left at least 73 Palestinians dead in Beit Lahia in the territory’s north.

“Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area… in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza,” said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

At Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was flooded with wounded from the strike, many patients had to be treated on the floor while nearby the dead were wrapped in white burial shrouds and placed in neat rows where relatives gathered to grieve.

The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation “condemned the strike in the strongest terms” and called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “stain on the conscience of humanity”.

In southern Lebanon, NNA later said Israeli strikes had targeted dozens of locations, including the city of Nabatiyeh for the third time this week.