Israel pounds Lebanon, targets residential building in central Beirut 

Israel has continued its relentless bombardment of Lebanon, hitting a residential building in central Beirut, as well as targeting a town in the eastern Bekaa Valley, as this punishing front in the wider regional war, sparked by the United States and Israel attacking Iran, has displaced nearly 700,000 people.

The strikes early on Wednesday killed at least one person in Zlaya, in Bekaa, with information on the number of casualties from the central Beirut strike still unconfirmed.

Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah have traded heavy fire during the ongoing conflict, but the suffering has been hugely disproportionate. At least 570 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel renewed widespread attacks on the country last Monday. Israel has so far had two soldiers killed in Lebanon, with several people injured in Israel from Hezbollah rockets.

Wednesday’s strike in Beirut hit a multistorey building in the Aisha Bakkar area and appears to be another attempted assassination, reported Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr from Beirut.

“We understand many people who live in this building are now in hospital. We are getting reports there have been deaths and injuries in this strike,” she said.

Khodr explained that the building is not a Hezbollah stronghold or in an area where the group has influence, but is located in a densely populated residential area.

“People here are in a state of shock,” she said, “the feeling is that there’s nowhere safe, there’s no front line.”

According to Heidi Pett, also reporting for Al Jazeera from the site, the strike destroyed “one or two floors” of the building instead of levelling it entirely, adding that there is no information yet on who the target was.

“The building is still on fire. There are at least two apartments on fire, one on top of the other, and the damage is really extensive.”

Israel carried out this strike with absolutely no warning, she said.

“This is a part of Beirut where people thought that they were going to be safe. Displaced families who fled Dahiyeh [in the southern suburbs after Israeli threats] have been sheltering here, some sleeping in the streets,” said Pett.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, there were several deadly attacks in the country overnight on Wednesday, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Additionally, two Israeli air strikes hit the village of Hanaway, in the Tyre (Sour in Arabic) district, killing three civilians, including a paramedic, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

An Israeli attack killed one person and wounded eight others in the al-Housh area of Tyre, the ministry said.

Two people were also killed in an Israeli attack on the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, the NNA reported.

Several people were wounded in an Israeli drone attack on a cafe in al-Housh and on a house in the town of al-Shahabiya, Tyre.

The ministry said four others were wounded in an attack on the town of Tibnin, in the Bint Jbeil district.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has called for “immediate de-escalation” in Lebanon, noting that Israeli forced displacement orders have affected hundreds of thousands of people.

“Our humanitarian colleagues report that nearly the entire population of people living in areas south of the Litani River, parts of Baalbek governorate and the Bekaa Valley, and large sections of Beirut’s southern suburbs are now caught up in hostilities,” Dujarric told reporters at a media briefing in New York late on Tuesday.

According to the Lebanese government, some 760,000 people have been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the war.