By Laila Bassam, Mohamed Azakir and Tom Perry
BEIRUT, March 18 (Reuters) – Israel stepped up airstrikes in central Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and destroying a 10-storey building, Lebanese authorities said, in attacks that shook the capital in the third week of Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
Strikes rattled Beirut through the night and into morning, lighting up the sky over the Hezbollah‑controlled southern suburbs, which have been heavily bombarded by Israel since Iran-backed Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East in support of Tehran.
Late on Tuesday, Hezbollah said it had launched “large salvos of rockets,” as well as drones and artillery fire, into Israel, one of its heaviest barrages of the war. Lebanese security sources said the initial launch included nearly 100 rockets.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday it had completed an overnight wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, after the group launched dozens of projectiles at Israel on Tuesday.
Central Beirut was hit by four airstrikes over an eight-hour period, targeting buildings in a cluster of neighbourhoods within walking distance of the city’s downtown and the headquarters of the Lebanese government.
An Israeli military spokesperson issued a warning on social media ahead of one of the strikes, but not before the other three.
The Israeli military statement said it had “struck assets” of a Hezbollah-run financial institution, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, in Beirut, and that the Israeli Navy had targeted Hezbollah militants in the city. It did not give specific locations.
NEIGHBOURHOODS NEAR DOWNTOWN BEIRUT
A strike at around 1:30 a.m. (2330 GMT) destroyed several floors of an apartment block in the Zuqaq al-Blat district. Around the same time, a strike in the nearby Basta district tore through at least two floors of another building.
Later, at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), a more powerful strike destroyed an entire building in the Bachoura neighbourhood.
The fourth strike, around 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT), tore through a floor of a second building in Zuqaq al-Blat, some 50 metres (yards) from the site of the earlier strike.
Ahead of the Bachoura strike, the Israeli military issued a warning on social media highlighting a building and saying it would act against what it said was a Hezbollah facility. There were no immediate reports of casualties there.
No warnings were issued ahead of the strikes in Zuqaq al‑Blat and Basta.
The targeted districts are historically mixed Beirut neighbourhoods where large numbers of Shi’ite Muslims live and Hezbollah and its ally the Amal Movement have political sway.
The Lebanese health ministry said 10 people were killed and 27 wounded in strikes in Beirut.
AREAS STRUCK LAST WEEK
Israel also struck the Bachoura and Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhoods last week, but Wednesday’s strikes were the most concentrated bombardment of the capital yet.
More than 900 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks since Hezbollah entered the regional war in support of Tehran on March 2, and more than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes, Lebanese authorities say.
No fatalities have been reported in Israel from Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks. The Israeli military says two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon during its ground offensive.
Israel also carried out deadly airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah holds sway and which have been heavily bombed in recent weeks.
In southern Lebanon, an Israeli strike hit a petrol station and another killed a town council member, state media said.
Four people were killed in an airstrike on the city of Baalbeck in eastern Lebanon. In the south, 10 people were killed in airstrikes in three different locations, the state news agency reported, citing the health ministry.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Ahmed Kerdi and Mohamed Azakir in Beirut; Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Enas Alashray in Cairo; Jana Choukeir in Dubai; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Jamie Freed, Kevin Buckland, Michael Perry, Lincoln Feast and Ros Russell)
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