Israel targets Beirut in a fresh wave of strikes

Israel claims to have struck Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters as it continues to hit targets in Lebanon’s capital city.

“The Intelligence Corps is Hezbollah’s primary intelligence body and is responsible for aggregating intelligence about the IDF and the State of Israel,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement justifying the attack.

The strike followed an attack on an apartment building in central Beirut late Wednesday which killed nine people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The IDF said that the assault, for which there was no prior warning, targeted a building housing a Hezbollah-affiliated medical centre.

Hezbollah’s civil defence unit said seven of its members were killed in the attack, which hit a building close to the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament.

Although Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, it has rarely struck in the heart of Beirut.

The strikes come as Israel is conducting a ground incursion into Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.

The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died so far in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli strike wounded four paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.

The aid organisation added that the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted Thursday despite coordinating its movements with UN peacekeepers. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.