Oct. 6 (UPI) — Israeli fighter jets continued to pound Beirut on Sunday as additional evacuation orders were issued throughout southern Lebanon.
The IDF said on X that fighter jets attacked Hezbollah targets in Beirut, including an intelligence headquarters.
It also hit munitions warehouses in the Beirut area belonging to the Iran proxy militia as well as munitions warehouses, military buildings, another headquarters and a launcher in southern Lebanon and in the eastern governorate of Bekaa.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונה מודיעינית של אגף המודיעין, תקפו מטרות טרור של מטה המודיעין של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בביירות, בהן אמצעי איסוף ומפקדות לצד תשתיות טרור נוספות.
בנוסף, מטוסי קרב תקפו בשעות האחרונות מחסני אמצעי לחימה של הארגון במרחב ביירות>> pic.twitter.com/Ow22JNzpRU— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 6, 2024
The announcement came after the IDF’s Arab-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued an “urgent” warning to residents of the southern Beirut suburbs of Burj el-Barajneh and Hadath to evacuate.
Maps released by the IDF showed buildings it said were Hezbollah facilities and stated that “the IDF will operate against them in the near future.”
“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate this building and the buildings adjacent to it immediately and stay away from it for a distance of no less than 500 meters,” he wrote in Arabic on X.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire over the Lebanese border since Israel’s war against Hamas, another Iran-backed militia, began Oct. 7, 2023. The fighting has intensified since Sept. 23, as Israel has vowed to return tens of thousands evicted northern Israelis to their homes.
Israel has also claimed that Hezbollah was planning a Hamas-like attack, similar to the one that ignited the conflict a year ago, which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw another 251 kidnapped.
Since Israel has intensified its actions in Lebanon, more than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in the country as of late last month.
Israel has long been in a proxy war with Iran, which exploded into the open on Oct. 7, 2023, and threatens to expand across the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated his country now faces war on seven fronts: against Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis — another Iran proxy militia — in Yemen, “terrorists” in the West Bank and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.
“And we are fighting against Iran, which last week fired over 200 ballistic missiles directly at Israel and which stands behind this seven-front war against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a recorded statement over the weekend.
At least 41,870 people have been killed and more than 97,000 wounded in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry.