BEIRUT: At least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike on the main eastern city of Baalbek on Thursday.

“Body parts were recovered from the site and their identities are being verified,” Lebanon's Health Ministry reported, as the Israeli army continued to launch destructive raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs for a third consecutive day.

More than 40 missiles targeted residential buildings and commercial and medical centers, some of which are allegedly owned by Hezbollah.

There was no specific timing for the raids, with Israeli evacuation warnings being sent at midnight, in the early morning, noon and the afternoon. Explosions destroyed entire streets and landmarks.

A new type of evacuation warning was sent on Thursday, as many residents received phone calls from non-Lebanese numbers, instructing them to leave their houses.

Residents informed security authorities of the incident and were instructed to leave as a precautionary measure. This caused panic among residents of adjacent buildings, prompting them too to flee.

Israeli raids on Thursday hit Ghobeiry, Chiyah, Rweis, Burj Al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik, Al-Amrousieh and Choueifat.

The Israeli army said that its air force conducted “a series of attacks against Hezbollah’s weapon depots and command centers in Beirut’s southern suburbs.”

Violent confrontations in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israeli forces penetrated the outskirts of Aitaroun toward Ainata, Bint Jbeil.

Hezbollah said that it “caused casualties among Israeli soldiers.”

The militant group said that on Wednesday night it used missiles to target “a gathering of soldiers south of the Lebanese border village of Odaisseh and a second soldier gathering east of Maroun Al-Ras.”

It also said that rocket salvos struck “a third Israeli soldier gathering on the southern outskirts of Bint Jbeil and the eastern outskirts of Markaba, as well as a fourth soldier gathering between Houla and east Markaba.”

The Israeli army revealed on Thursday that “the Egoz, Duvdevan, and Maglan units have begun operations in new areas in southern Lebanon under the command of the Galilee Division.”

Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardments continued on southern towns, inflicting injuries among the Lebanese who remained in their villages and causing further destruction in residential neighborhoods.

Israeli artillery fired 155mm phosphorus shells at the town of Yohmor, destroying four homes, while a drone killed a motorcyclist in the same town.

The airstrikes also hit towns in the Tyre district, killing a farmer in Habbariyeh, while a strike on Kfar Roummane led to the death of the town’s mukhtar.

The Israeli army blew up the mosque in the border town of Yarine, an airstrike on Arabsalim killed three citizens, while a strike on Aaramta killed two. Strikes were also recorded in Bint Jbeil, Deir Al-Zahrani, Kfar Jouz, and the Al-Bayada neighborhood in Nabatieh, leading to another victim.

The Islamic Media Authority mourned journalist Soukaina Kawtharani, who worked for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Nour radio, and her two children, who were killed two days ago in an Israeli airstrike on a house in which they were sheltering in the town of Joun in the Iqlim Al-Kharroub region.

Meanwhile, a correspondent for the LBC television station in Nabatieh, Rana Jouni, was wounded in an airstrike in the town of Deir Al-Zahrani when her car was hit by shrapnel from the missile.

On the Israeli side, the newspaper Israel Hayom quoted an Israeli security source as saying that “the army is preparing to establish buffer zones inside Lebanese territory, which will contribute to preventing infiltration and firing toward Israel.”

The source said that “Hezbollah must be defeated to prevent rocket fire.”

Hezbollah, according to its statements, demonstrated through its military operations that it maintains its firepower.

The group said its members “targeted the Jal Al-Alam border post, shelled Nahariya and the settlement of Yesud HaMa’ala, the Dovev barracks, the settlements of Al-Manara and Dishon, and a logistics base of the 146th army division east of the settlement of Netiv HaShayara.

In the afternoon, Hezbollah reported that it had carried out “an aerial attack with a squadron of assault drones on the settlement of Yir’on, hitting its targets accurately.”

Israeli media reported that the “Israeli army is facing tough battles on the second line of Lebanese towns.”

The newspaper Maariv quoted a US intelligence official, who said: “Hezbollah’s capabilities have been significantly damaged, but its ground forces on the border with Israel remain largely intact.”

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson, wrote on X: “Over the past week, the Israeli Air Force warplanes targeted and destroyed more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.

“These platforms posed an immediate threat to the Israeli home front and to forces operating in southern Lebanon.

“Among the targeted platforms were those that were used to launch rockets toward the Western Galilee.”