Israeli bombardment across Lebanon kills more than 20 people

Israel has attacked a building in Bashoura, a neighbourhood in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported, with a blast and smoke rising over the area shortly after Israel issued a forced evacuation order for the site.

The attack was part of a deadly wave of Israeli strikes across Lebanon that killed more than 20 people and wounded dozens of others on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, with raids stretching from the capital through southern and eastern parts of the country, a devastating front in the wider United States-Israeli war against Iran embroiling the region.

At least six people were killed in the air strikes in Beirut, with dozens injured.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said that intense Israeli attacks hit multiple regions across Lebanon, including the centre of the capital, overnight.

Speaking from in front of a 15-storey building struck in one of the attacks, Khodr said its lower floors had been bombed a week earlier. In the early hours, however, the structure was completely demolished, with the Israeli army claiming the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had stored cash there.

“You can see the widespread damage across this whole neighbourhood,” Khodr said.

Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV on Wednesday said the director of its political programmes was killed alongside his wife in an Israeli strike on central Beirut.

In a statement, the channel said “Mohammad Shari and his wife” were killed “in the Zionist raid on the Zuqaq al-Blat area in Beirut”.

Shari’s children and grandchildren were wounded and admitted to hospital following the strike, according to Al-Manar.

Beirut-based security and political analyst Ali Rizk told Al Jazeera that Israel was adopting strategies to force the Lebanese government’s hand against Hezbollah and to pressure the Lebanese population to turn against the Iran-aligned group.

“Last night, the Israelis dropped leaflets on western Beirut, which is not known to be a Hezbollah stronghold,” Rizk said. “In those leaflets, they called on the Lebanese to take action against Hezbollah.”

Western Beirut has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli warplanes, which had initially focused on bombing Hezbollah’s stronghold in the capital’s southern suburbs.

By shattering the illusion of security in central Beirut, Rizk said Israel was aiming to promote civil strife.

“It might work to some degree, but I don’t think it will end up achieving full success,” the analyst said, adding that support for Hezbollah remained strong in Lebanon.

Attacks on southern, eastern Lebanon

Israel’s military said it had launched what it described as limited ground operations in southern Lebanon, issuing evacuation threats for residents of four towns near the Zahrani River and the Tyre area, warning them to head north immediately.

Lebanon’s NNA also reported strikes on Tyre and the nearby area of Burj Shemali in the predawn hours.

Two people were killed and one was wounded in an Israeli air strike on the southern city of Sidon, NNA reported. One of the victims was a paramedic, the Health Ministry said. The strike targeted a car near the city’s waterfront.

In a ⁠further escalation, Israeli warplanes struck bridges over the Litani River that link southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, destroying at least two of them, Lebanese state media said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz also confirmed the attacks on the bridges. The Israeli military said it would target bridges on the Litani to prevent Hezbollah from transferring fighters and weapons, and reiterated a warning for residents to leave.

Lebanon’s Culture Minister Ghassan Salame told Al Jazeera that Israel was carrying out a systematic process of encroaching on new areas in southern Lebanon, with the goal of establishing a buffer zone in the south.

He added that Israel was also conducting a campaign of displacement and demolition to prevent residents of the south from returning to their homes.

In eastern Lebanon, NNA reported that the death toll from an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the Ras al-Ain neighbourhood of Baalbek on Tuesday rose to four people killed and seven wounded.

At least four people were killed in an Israeli attack that targeted four houses in the town of Sahmar in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

The conflict was ignited on February 28 when US and Israeli forces assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, prompting Hezbollah to launch rockets into northern Israel on March 2.

Israel has killed 968 people in Lebanon and injured 2,432 in its attacks since the war started, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

More than one million people have been forced from their homes in Lebanon. The United Nations warned on Tuesday that Israeli attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure may constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law.

Lebanon’s president convened a high-level security meeting on Wednesday as Israeli attacks intensified and displacement rose across the country.

The presidency said the meeting chaired by President Joseph Aoun reviewed nationwide security developments, including rising casualties and population displacement.

Khodr said that Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, last night laid down conditions for the war to end, including Israel stopping attacks, displaced people being permitted to return to their homes, those detained over the last two years by Israel being released, and the Israeli army withdrawing.

Across southern Lebanon, Khodr said, Hezbollah was “still present in the area, trying to repel the Israeli army’s advance”, adding that Hezbollah’s aim was not just territorial control of the region, but preventing Israel from gaining new positions in the country.

European concerns

France’s special envoy for Lebanon ‌said on Wednesday that it ⁠would ⁠be unreasonable to expect Lebanon’s government to ⁠disarm Hezbollah while the country ⁠is being bombed by Israel, adding that only negotiations would resolve the crisis.

“Israel occupied Lebanon for ⁠a very long ⁠time and failed to eradicate Hezbollah’s military capacity. Therefore, ⁠they cannot now ask ⁠the Lebanese ⁠government to do that job in three days under ‌bombardment,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told France ‌Info ‌radio.

Spain condemned Israel’s call for people to evacuate all areas in southern Lebanon south of the Zahrani River. “The situation in Lebanon is extremely worrying,” Spain’s Foreign Ministry said. “The government demands respect for international humanitarian law and calls for restraint.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a staunch Israeli ally, had added his voice to growing international concern, warning that Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon was an “error” that risked worsening what he described as an already dire humanitarian situation.