The Albany Gazette - Fresh Israeli strikes on Lebanon as PM warns of 'looming humanitarian disaster'

An Israeli strike on an office building in the southern city of Sidon killed five people and wounded seven, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel presses attacks on Lebanon's south, east, and in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Speaking to foreign ambassadors, the Lebanese premier said "the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented".

More than 95,000 people are displaced to official shelters, per the government's latest count.

"Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose," Salam said.

"Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them," he added.

"They are victims of the Israeli war on Lebanon but also of those who offered a pretext for the Israeli aggression," he added, in a jab at Hezbollah, which launched rockets at Israel early Monday.

The Lebanese government banned the party's military activities the same day.

- Rubble and dust -

In Sidon, the largest city in southern Lebanon, an Israeli strike targeted a building on a main, crowded street, according to the National News Agency.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw extensive damage in the targeted apartment and shattered glass on the street, which is flanked by two public schools that have turned into shelters for displaced people.

Rescue workers meanwhile recovered a body from under the rubble and collected body parts scattered around the area.

The health ministry said late Thursday night that Israeli strikes since Monday had killed 123 people.

The Israeli military announced Friday that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the past four days.

Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighbourhood Friday, while the apartment buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed.

The streets were completely deserted by Friday morning, with no movement except for a bulldozer working to remove debris.

After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area, whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000.

Mohammad, 39, a resident of the southern suburbs, fled with his family when the bombing began on Monday.

Returning on Thursday to check on his home and collect belongings just minutes before the Israeli evacuation warning was issued, he said he "went down and found total chaos".

- Dozens of strikes on south -

The war in the Middle East spread to Lebanon when Hezbollah launched a rocket attack at Israel early Monday, which it said was to "avenge" the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli attack on Tehran on Saturday.

That prompted a swift retaliation from Israel, which has continued to bomb Lebanon since. It has also ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of southern Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border.

NNA reported strikes on dozens of villages in south and east Lebanon.

It came as the Israeli army chief on Thursday said he ordered forces deployed in southern Lebanon to expand their control inside south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, for its part, on Friday claimed new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa.

It also announced it had targeted a cluster of Israeli vehicles advancing toward the town of Khiam, about six kilometres from the border, and "forced them to retreat".

(W.Walker--TAG)