The Albany Gazette - Israel renews Beirut strikes as Netanyahu vows hard line on Hezbollah

"You are playing with fire," Benjamin Netanyahu said to Lebanese authorities during a press conference, as Israeli jets carried out three strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs -- two without prior warning -- according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Referring to the Lebanese government's stated commitment to disarm the Iran-backed group, the premier added "if you do not do so, it is clear that we will".

"How will we do it? On the ground. With ground forces and other things," he said.

Earlier Thursday the Israeli military had announced "a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure across Beirut", with AFPTV footage showing dark smoke rising into the sky above two districts in the heart of the city.

One of the strikes hit a building in Bashoura, adjacent to Beirut's commercial centre, where many large companies and government institutions are based.

An Israeli army spokesperson accused Hezbollah of "hiding... millions of dollars" under the building.

That was followed by another attack on a Beirut branch of the Hezbollah-linked financial firm Al Qard Al Hassan in the downtown neighbourhood of Zoukak El-Blat.

"I address you today while Beirut is being bombed, as are its suburbs, our south, and our Bekaa," Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a speech to the nation.

"It is a war we did not want; on the contrary, we are working day and night to bring it to an end."

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said earlier that he had ordered troops to "prepare for expanding" attacks in Lebanon, as Israel issued an evacuation warning to all residents south of the Zahrani River, some 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the border.

Israel continued striking several areas of Lebanon throughout the day, including the town of Arkey in the south, where nine people were killed and seven wounded, according to the health ministry.

Among the dead were five children, four of them siblings, according to the Arkey municipality.

A separate Israeli strike on the Christian village of Ein Ebel killed three men as they were installing a satellite TV dish on a roof, the NNA said.

- Hezbollah and Iran -

Hezbollah said on Thursday that it carried out a number of attacks against Israel, including one targeting an air defence system near the town of Caesarea, home to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which had kept up its strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire, has since launched air raids and sent ground troops into border areas.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that they had carried out a joint operation with Hezbollah against targets in Israel.

The joint operation drew the Lebanese government's "firm objection" with the foreign minister summoning the Iranian charge d'affaires.

- 'We won't leave' -

The violence has killed more than 687 people in Lebanon, according to national authorities, while more than 800,000 people have registered as displaced.

World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, visiting Beirut, told AFP that "the massive displacement we have seen" in Lebanon was "unique" in the context of the regional war.

"Some 800,000 people in a week. That's massive."

An Israeli overnight strike on Ramlet al-Bayda, Beirut's public beachfront, killed 12 people and wounded 28, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw blood stains on the pavement and damaged vehicles, with the area, usually bustling with crowds, sealed off by security forces.

"We saw dead people on the ground," said Aseel Habbaj, a displaced woman who had been sheltering in a nearby tent after fleeing Israeli bombings in other areas of Lebanon.

Her 40-year-old neighbour Dalal al-Sayed said she had opted to pitch her tent at the seaside after fleeing attacks in southern Lebanon "because the last thing we expected was Israel to hit Beirut".

Her family could not afford to rent an apartment, she said.

"We won't leave, we will stay here even if we die," she added.

Displaced people have been sleeping rough or in tents on the streets of Beirut, including in Ramlet al-Bayda, where some shelters were hit by shrapnel from the overnight strike, according to an AFP correspondent.

A strike on a campus of the Lebanese University, the country's only public institution of higher learning, killed the head of the faculty of sciences and another professor, according to the NNA.

(A.Johnson--TAG)