BEIRUT: Fresh Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon on Tuesday after the Israeli army warned people to evacuate and the United Nations said 100,000 people had been displaced in a single day.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel, which kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, has since launched waves of attacks across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.
“Israeli warplanes launched a raid... on the southern suburbs” of Beirut, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.
AFPTV footage showed smoke rising from the area, where Hezbollah holds sway, while the Israeli military said it began “striking Hezbollah infrastructure” there.
In Lebanon’s south, the NNA said “the Israeli enemy launched a strike” in Abbassiyeh near Tyre city, after the Israeli military said it would strike a building there and in the coastal city of Sidon.
It also reported strikes in other areas.
Lebanese authorities have said Israel’s attacks since March 2 have killed at least 486 people and wounded more than 1,300 others.
The government has said more than 660,000 people have registered as displaced, with some 120,000 sleeping at official shelters as of Monday.
The United Nations said on Tuesday that among the displaced were more than 100,000 who had fled in just 24 hours.
This is “a faster pace of displacement compared to 2024,” during Israel’s last war with Hezbollah, said Karolina Lindholm Billing, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Lebanon.
Fresh Israeli strikes hit Lebanon after evacuation warnings
https://arab.news/j8yrz
Fresh Israeli strikes hit Lebanon after evacuation warnings
- “Israeli warplanes launched a raid... on the southern suburbs” of Beirut, NNA said
- AFPTV footage showed smoke rising from the area while the Israeli military said it began “striking Hezbollah infrastructure” there
One killed in attack on oil tankers off Iraq, rescue operation ongoing: authorities
- Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details
BAGHDAD: An attack on two oil tankers near Iraq killed at least one crew member, authorities said on Thursday, as Iran carries out a campaign to disrupt global energy markets.
Farhan Al-Fartousi, from Iraq’s General Company for Ports, told state television that one crew member had been killed and 38 rescued while the “search continues for the missing.”
He did not specify the crew members’ nationalities or provide details on who was behind the attack, which occurred roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the coast.
The Iraqi government’s media cell told national news agency INA that “two tankers were subject to sabotage.”
Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details.
“The safety of navigation in international maritime corridors and energy supply routes must remain free from regional conflicts,” the ministry added.
The Strait of Hormuz — the waterway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil — remains closed to almost all oil tankers, and Iran has vowed that not one liter of oil would be exported from the Gulf while its war with the United States and Israel continues.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that US forces have struck 28 Iranian mine-laying vessels more than a week into the Middle East war.
Images of a ship at sea with plumes of smoke rising from a huge fire, were broadcast by state television channel Al-Ikhbariya. AFP could not verify the images.
An employee at Iraq’s Basra oil terminal told AFP that it was unclear “whether it was a drone attack or explosive-laden boats.”
The Iraqi State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) confirmed in a statement that two oil tankers were attacked, without providing details on how.
Maltese-flagged oil tanker ZEFYROS was attacked as it was preparing to enter the port of Khor Al-Zoubair, where it would have taken on board an additional 30,000 tons of liquid naphtha — primarily used in petrochemicals, SOMO said.
The second targeted vessel, SAFESEA VISHNU, was sailing under the Marshall Islands flag and was chartered by an Iraqi company, according to SOMO.
The incidents come just hours after the US embassy in Baghdad warned that Iran and Tehran-backed Iraqi armed groups might target US-owned oil facilities in Iraq.
