For several days, the Israelis have been warning of new military strikes on Lebanon's capital. People have been seen flooding out of the southern suburbs which have been a historic stronghold of Hezbollah support.
Amid ongoing ground fighting between IDF and Hezbollah forces in the south, Thursday finally saw heavy airstrikes on the capital. "An Israeli strike hit a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Thursday, killing at least 14 people, the first strike to hit near Beirut in weeks amid a ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon," Reuters reports.
Follow-up reporting indicates the death toll across the nation amid the flare-up in bombing raids is at 16 and counting, amid emergency crews picking through the rubble:
At least 16 people have been killed and 58 wounded in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese health authorities, as Israel intensifies its assault and issues mass displacement orders across the region.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday that six of the victims belonged to the same family. They were killed in an Israeli drone strike while trying to flee at dawn along the Adloun Highway, a key route linking Sidon and Tyre, it said.
The Israeli military confirmed what it called a "precise strike" but did not initially disclose who or what it was after.
Officials were later cited in Reuters as saying the target was the head of the missile division within the Imam Hussein Division, a paramilitary group which is closely aligned with Hezbollah and Iran. The man was identified as Ali Al-Husseini.
Reuters underscores that it has been a month since Israeli airstrikes last rocked the Lebanese capital: "Apart from a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in early May that killed a Hezbollah commander, the capital and its suburbs had been spared new bombardment during the truce," the report indicates.
But now, illusions of 'quiet' in Beirut have been shattered, as war returns to the whole country, given also Israel has long targeted other parts of the small Levantine Mediterranean nation like Bekaa Valley.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that Israel is "intensifying operations" in Lebanon by taking strategic positions deeper into the country with a wave of offensives north of the Litani River.
Officially, Tel Aviv is justifying the deep territorial grab as a "defensive" counter-measure against persistent Hezbollah drone strikes on occupation forces as well as communities in northern Israel.
"We are intensifying our operations in Lebanon. The IDF is operating with significant forces on the ground and taking control of strategically dominant positions. We are reinforcing the security buffer zone in order to protect the communities of northern Israel," Netanyahu has said in a fresh video released by his office.
"At the same time, we are carrying out a major national effort to advance creative and innovative solutions against explosive drones," he added, following a meeting with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in Tel Aviv.
The ground offensive comes as hawkish Israeli cabinet members openly lobby for a substantial escalation of the war and permanent occupations deeper into sovereign Lebanese territory.