Israel attacks Lebanon updates: Beirut suffers ‘unprecedented’ bombardment

For first-hand accounts of what Lebanese families are facing as they flee intense Israeli bombardment, read our feature here.

For images showing the aftermath of Israel’s attack on yet another school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, visit this photo gallery.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

With all eyes on Lebanon, Israel’s military continues to attack the Gaza Strip.

At least 20 people were killed throughout Gaza on Friday, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesman, Mahmoud Basal.

It carried out an attack on a busy street west of Gaza City, killing at least one person. Artillery fire also hit the city’s nearby Zeitoun neighbourhood.

In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, rescue teams pulled the bodies of three Palestinians out after Israeli forces targeted a tent housing displaced people. Four other people were killed after a residential home was blown up in Nasser’s neighbourhood.

The civil defence agency said it managed to save the lives of seven people trapped under the rubble of a residential home in Khan Younis after it was struck by Israeli forces.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• The Israeli military launched a wave of deadly air attacks on Lebanon’s capital, completely destroying six residential towers with six killed and 91 wounded – with the casualty toll expected to jump significantly.
• Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayyed Abbas Araghchi told the UN Security Council the attack on southern Beirut by Israel involved 5,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs supplied by the United States.
• In a speech at the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Hamas has got to go” as he pledged to fight until “total victory”.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres endorsed a joint US-France plan for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon as Israel carried out more deadly attacks.
• The UN agency for children says the Israeli air attacks on Lebanon in recent days have already killed more children per day than the 2006 war, which lasted for 33 days and killed about 1,200 people.
• At least 20 Palestinians were killed throughout Gaza, including in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced people.

Lebanese volunteers came together to help people displaced by the Israeli war in southern parts of Lebanon.

They prepared food at the Nation Station community kitchen and helped with the distribution of clothes.

Watch the video below:

Israel’s military has been accused of dropping several US-made “bunker buster” bombs on southern Beirut that weigh 5,000 pounds (2,300kg) each.

Israel provided no immediate comment about the type of bomb or how many it used, but the resulting explosion levelled an area greater than a city block.

The Israeli army has in its arsenal 2,000-pound (900kg), American-made “bunker buster” guided bombs designed specifically for hitting subterranean targets.

Richard Weir, crisis and weapons researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the blasts on Friday were consistent with that class of bomb.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly issued an urgent call for Canadians in Lebanon to immediately leave the country because of the deteriorating situation.

“The situation in #Lebanon continues to worsen. Canadians need to leave now and we are helping with that,” she posted on X.

Joly confirmed Canada secured seats for Canadians on the limited commercial flights still available.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the US government’s inaction after the latest Israeli attack on Lebanon.

“By levelling an entire city block without any regard for civilian life, the genocidal Israeli government is screaming to anyone who will listen that it wants to carry on the genocide in Gaza, use Lebanon to spark an all-out war in the Middle East, and drag the United States into that war,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s deputy executive director.

“President Biden must stop enabling Netanyahu’s madness. President Biden must leverage US financial, diplomatic and military support to force a ceasefire on Netanyahu immediately.”

President Joe Biden says the United States had “no knowledge of or participation in” Israeli military strikes on Beirut.

“We’re gathering more information. I’ll have more to say when we have more information,” Biden said after he arrived in his home state of Delaware for the weekend.

Asked about his support for Israel’s right to self-defence and whether he supported the strikes on Lebanon’s capital, Biden said he needed more information. “I don’t know enough to answer that question.”

The Palestinian group has condemned the “Zionist escalation and aggression” against the people of Lebanon.

In a statement, Hamas said Israeli attacks on Lebanon require intervention from the Arab world and called on “Arab and Islamic nations” to act and “reject this brutal aggression”.

Hamas said it supports the Lebanese people saying: “We share their pain and hope for victory … and appreciate their sacrifices.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayyed Abbas Araghchi told the UN Security Council the deadly attack on southern Beirut by Israel involved 5,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs supplied by the United States.

Instead of taking action against Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, the Security Council “rewards the Israeli criminal mafia” that is pushing the entire Middle East into a full-scale war, he added.

“The Israeli regime used several 5,000-pound bunker busters that had been gifted to them by the United States to hit residential areas in Beirut,” said Araghchi.

“Israel’s warmongering relies on US military support and political backing … therefore, the United States is implicated in every aspect of Israel’s atrocity.

“The Council must act now to stop Israel’s cruel plan to exterminate an entire nation of people who, for eight long decades, have been under brutal occupation and suppression.”

Israel reverts to its wartime playbook as it manufactures consent for all-out war on Lebanon.

In the past couple of weeks, the low-intensity war that Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting across the border for a year has metastasised. Thousands of Lebanese have been forced from their homes as Israeli bombardment has intensified. More than 700 have been killed.

Alongside air raids and preparations for a land invasion, there is an element of psychological pressure Israel exerts too, designed to terrorise people and manufacture consent for war.

We examine this and more in the latest episode of The Listening Post.

Watch below:

President Joe Biden directed the Pentagon to “assess and adjust as necessary US force posture” in the Middle East, the White House says.

The move comes after repeated Israeli air strikes in southern Beirut collapsed at least six residential towers in the heavily populated Dahiyeh area.

“He has directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary US force posture in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection, and support the full range of US objectives,” the White House said in a statement.

The Israeli military says it is now targeting “weapons” it claims belong to Hezbollah and are stored under “civilian buildings” in Dahiyeh.

The army earlier said it would start launching attacks on the area, shortly after it struck the Haret Hreik district, levelling six buildings, killing six people, and wounding more than 90 others.

It ordered residents in at least two neighbourhoods – including al-Hadath and Laylaki – to leave.

Dahiyeh is a heavily populated area packed with Lebanese civilians.

It remains unclear how many people were killed in Israel’s massive bombing of southern Beirut.

However, the fact six residential apartment buildings were totally destroyed means the death toll is likely to rise significantly from two.

“Six buildings with residents were literally blown to dust and these buildings had civilians in them,” said Hala Jaber, a Beirut-based journalist who lives not far from the blast site. “The rescue workers are finding it very difficult to find bodies at the moment.”

More than 700 people have been killed so far in Lebanon this week in Israeli attacks, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military says it will strike Hezbollah assets in southern Beirut in the “coming hours” after it attacked the Dahiyeh neighbourhood’s Haret Hreik district, levelling six buildings.

In a televised address, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israel will not tolerate the civilian airport in Beirut being used for military purposes.

“We will not allow arms transfers to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in any way. We know about Iranian arms shipments to Hezbollah and foil them. Air force jets are now patrolling around the Beirut airport,” said Hagari.

“We will not allow hostile flights with weapons to land at the civilian Beirut airport.”

The strike on Haret Hreik killed two people and wounded more than 70 others with the casualty toll expected to surge. Rescue efforts are still under way.

Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a warning during a lengthy news conference in New York City.

“I thought it was interesting that he basically issued a threat to anyone who attacks US assets in the region. So that was a very ominous message he sort of threw out in the midst of all this other discourse,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.

“Clearly, that’s a message to Iran, the Houthis in Yemen, and other proxy groups that might be thinking about launching an attack.”

The Israeli military says it carried out dozens of strikes throughout southern Lebanon allegedly targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure.

In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defence workers pulled the bodies of two women – Hiba Ataya, 35, and her mother, Sabah Olyan – from the rubble of a building brought down by an air strike.

“That’s Sabah, these are her clothes, my love,” one man cried out as her body emerged.