Israel strikes Beirut suburb, at least 14 killed across southern Lebanon

Israel's beam ram struck a southern suburban area of Beirut on th afternoon, its military machine said, amid a broader escalation in southern Lebanon where Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River over the past days and warned residents to leave much of the area.

The target of the airstrike on the suburb of Choueifat was not immediately clear. Videos from the area, which is is close to Beirut's international airport, showed white smoke billowing from a residential neighbourhood.

A strike on a Beirut suburb in early May killed a military official with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces.

Earlier Thursday, strikes by Israel across southern Lebanon — including in Tyre, the country's fourth-largest city — killed at least 14 people as its conflict continued with Hezbollah.

Israel had issued warnings to eight buildings and surrounding neighbourhoods in the coastal city prior to Thursday's attacks, prompting many people to flee the area.

Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency.

An Israeli soldier meanwhile was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israeli military said. Two reservists were wounded.

The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah's use of fibre-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel's northern border towns.

Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in Washington. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since intensified.

Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with Washington brokered by Pakistan.

In the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and wounding 21 others, among them five children. Among those killed was Hossan Zeidan who once was a correspondent for Iran's Arabic-language al-Aalam television.

Mohammad Al-Gharbi, who lived across the street from the building, woke to the sound of the explosion.

"I was in my room when part of the wall and shattered glass fell on me, and everything was thrown into chaos," he said. "This building that was hit had six apartments occupied by poor families who had fled from the south to escape the attacks there, only to be hit here."

Escalating attacks jeopardize Israel, Hezbollah ceasefire

In the nearby coastal town of Adloun, an Israeli drone struck a car with a family that was fleeing, killing six people, of which four were two children and their parents, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Another drone strike that came without warning killed two people on a motorcycle near Tyre. The target of the attack was not immediately clear, NNA reported.

Elsewhere near the city of Nabatiyeh, the Lebanese military said a soldier was killed in an Israeli drone strike while he was driving his motorcycle.

Hezbollah has claimed dozens of drone and rocket attacks that it says targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The group said Thursday it has launched several attacks on Israeli troops and tanks that have crossed the Litani River into the town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh near Nabatiyeh, as close-range fighting continues.

Over one million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.

At least 3,269 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,800 wounded.

According to Netanyahu's office, at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.

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