For several days, the Israelis have been warning of new military strikes on Lebanon’s capital. People have been seen flooding out of the southern suburbs which have been a historic stronghold of Hezbollah support.
Amid ongoing ground fighting between IDF and Hezbollah forces in the south, Thursday finally saw heavy airstrikes on the capital. “An Israeli strike hit a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Thursday, killing at least 14 people, the first strike to hit near Beirut in weeks amid a ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon,” Reuters reports.
Follow-up reporting indicates the death toll across the nation amid the flare-up in bombing raids is at 16 and counting, amid emergency crews picking through the rubble:
At least 16 people have been killed and 58 wounded in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese health authorities, as Israel intensifies its assault and issues mass displacement orders across the region.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday that six of the victims belonged to the same family. They were killed in an Israeli drone strike while trying to flee at dawn along the Adloun Highway, a key route linking Sidon and Tyre, it said.
Hellbound and Down 