By Liam Stack, Lauren Leatherby, Euan Ward and Victoria Kim
The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings Thursday for a further swath of towns and villages in southern Lebanon where its troops are fighting Hezbollah militants, as Lebanese health officials raised the death toll from an Israeli strike near the heart of Beirut to at least nine people.
No apparent warning preceded the overnight strike, which hit the Bachoura neighborhood of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, several hundred yards from parliament and Western embassies. Other large explosions were heard in or near the city early Thursday as Israel continued its campaign against Hezbollah, including in the Dahiya, a cluster of neighborhoods on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, warned residents of more than 20 additional towns and cities in southern Lebanon to leave their homes immediately and not to move south toward the Israeli border, a possible sign that the ground invasion that Israeli forces began this week could be expanding.
The areas are farther north than those mentioned in previous Israeli evacuation warnings and include Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon. All lie above the Litani River, the upper boundary of a buffer area established by the United Nations after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The attack on Beirut followed a day of clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, in what appeared to be the first direct confrontations between the two sides since the invasion began. Israel said eight of its soldiers had been killed, including five members of an elite unit, as its forces engaged in close-range combat with the Iran-backed militant group.
Israeli leaders were continuing to weigh a military response to Iran, which on Tuesday launched nearly 200 missiles at targets across Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has vowed retribution for the missile attack, said Wednesday that his country was engaged in “a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil.”
President Joe Biden, in an apparent attempt to stem the escalation and broadening of conflicts in the Middle East, said Wednesday that he would not support Israel striking Iran’s nuclear sites.
Here is what else to know:
— Continuing strikes: The Israeli military said it had struck about 200 sites in Lebanon overnight, including local government offices in Bint Jbeil, a large town near the border with Israel, where it killed 15 people it described as Hezbollah fighters.
— Iran sanctions: Biden told reporters that leaders of the Group of 7 nations had agreed in a call Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Iran for the missile strike. He said the other leaders on the call — of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — agreed that Israel has the right to respond but that it must be proportional.
— Gaza attacks: The Israeli military kept up its attacks on Iranian-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying Thursday that it had killed three top Hamas officials in a previously undisclosed airstrike three months ago, including Rawhi Mushtaha, one of the closest confidants of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader. Hamas did not immediately comment on Israel’s claim, but it has generally not confirmed or denied the deaths of its officials in the conflict.
— Tel Aviv attack: The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, the Gaza-based militant group, took responsibility for the shooting attack Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv, Israel, in which seven people were killed.
— Strike in Syria: An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Damascus, the Syrian capital, killed three people Wednesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the state news media.
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