Israel destroys southern Lebanon towns, hits ‘safe’ areas around Beirut

Israel has launched renewed strikes on southern Lebanon as it continues to press forward with a ground invasion, while also waging new attacks on Beirut shortly after striking areas around the capital that had been so far removed from the conflict.

At least four people were killed in a raid that hit a car in the southern town of Kfar Rumman, the Lebanese Civil Defence told Al Jazeera.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a string of attacks in the Jabal Amel region, south of the Litani River, including in the towns of Arzoun, Jouya, Hadatha, Jmeijmeh, Dbeibine and Haris.

An Israeli drone struck near Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, killing one person and injuring a second, local media reported.

Israel’s military has targeted bridges in southern Lebanon, in what observers say is an attempt to cut the area off from the rest of the country. A deepening ground invasion launched by the Israeli military on March 16 has spurred concern as Israeli leaders last week openly said they planned to demolish scores of homes.

Elie Yaacoub, head of Mercy Corps’ Lebanon Crisis Analysis Team, said the area south of the Litani river was not witnessing a military escalation but “the systematic isolation of an entire population.”

“The destruction of key bridges and transport routes is effectively cutting off up to 150,000 people from humanitarian assistance, creating conditions for a rapid deterioration in basic needs and access to essential services,” Yaacoub told Al Jazeera.

“We are seeing a re-emergence of tactics used in the 2006 war, particularly the targeting of transport infrastructure to isolate the south. The difference today is the scale of need and the fragility of systems already under strain, which makes the humanitarian consequences even more severe.”

Yaacoub added that the scale of infrastructure destruction will have consequences far beyond the immediate crisis.

“It sets back development by years, if not decades, and dramatically increases the cost and complexity of recovery,” he said.

Israel has launched air strikes across Lebanon since March 2 after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in response to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Lebanese group on Tuesday said its fighters launched rocket barrages on the Hurfeish, Shlomi and Nahariya settlements in northern Israel. It said it also targeted a gathering of Israeli army vehicles and soldiers at the Fatima Gate on the Israeli-Lebanon border.

More attacks reported in Lebanon’s capital

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered the evacuation of residents from seven neighbourhoods in the southern suburb of Beirut, saying the army would attack “Hezbollah infrastructure”.

An Israeli airstrike targeting Bir al-Abed, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, was reported shortly after.

The latest attacks come hours after overnight strikes hit the predominantly Christian town of Ain Saadeh, in the hills east of the capital. The Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health said the strike killed three people, including two women and injured three others.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Ain Saadeh “is outside Hezbollah’s influence, and those killed were apparently not part of the conflict.”

“Tension is being heightened in those areas because people are blaming Hezbollah and its supporters for seeking shelter there,” Khodr said.

More than one million people have been displaced across Lebanon, with several thousand sheltering in the hills of Mount Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from the site of the strike in Ain Saadeh, said the attack appeared to be an attempted assassination as Israeli forces targeted a specific apartment.

“[This is] an area that was not warned about and has not been targeted before, an area where people thought that they would be safe,” Pett said. “It’s caused a lot of concern, leaving neighbours and first responders confused and frightened.”

“From what we can tell, the apartment that the Israeli forces were going after was on the third floor,” the reporter said. “Speaking to people here, they say that at the time, that apartment was empty. However, the damage was severe enough that people who were on the second floor were killed.”

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike on the Jnah area in southern Beirut killed five people, including a 15-year-old girl and three Sudanese nationals. Eight children were among 52 people injured.

At least 1,461 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 4,000 injured in the conflict, now in its sixth week.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: aljazeera.com