What we know about Israel’s latest attacks on Lebanon

Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been killed in an Israeli air attack on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.

Israeli media reported earlier on Saturday that Nasrallah was at the headquarters that was attacked and that Israel had used “bunker-busting” bombs.

The news comes after a night of Israeli bombardment around Lebanon.

Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and additional Hezbollah commanders were also killed in the huge air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Friday, the Israeli military claimed.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said a total of six people were killed and 91 injured in the bombardment, which levelled six apartment buildings. Israeli air attacks continued to hammer Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon into Saturday.

Where is Israel striking in Lebanon?

The Israeli army says it has struck more than 140 Hezbollah targets since Friday evening, including the “central headquarters of Hezbollah” that, it says, was “embedded underneath residential buildings in the area of Beirut”.

On Saturday, Israel’s military said jet fighters had also attacked “dozens” of Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and various areas of southern Lebanon and the attacks are continuing.

Israeli forces said they had targeted buildings where weapons were believed to be stored as well as sites from where rockets were launched into Israel.

Israel launched an assault on the southern suburbs of Beirut in a series of attacks on Friday in the heaviest bombardment since it escalated its offensive against Lebanon earlier this month. Attacks on Beirut and areas around Lebanon continued through the night into Saturday.

More than a dozen explosions were reported in the neighbourhood of Dahiyeh, which had already been hit by air raids in recent days. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the attacks destroyed at least seven buildings in the Haret Hreik suburb of the neighbourhood, turning them into a pile of rubble. The station said more than 15 missiles struck the area. Civil defence teams are working on putting out multiple fires in the area and have asked people to donate blood due to the likelihood of a high number of casualties.

The explosions were heard as far away as Jounieh, a 25-minute drive north of Beirut. “This attack was massive,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr. “I have covered a lot of aftermaths of Israeli air strikes in these southern suburbs of Beirut but nothing like this.”

The latest wave of attacks on Beirut is reminiscent of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, one resident in Lebanon’s capital told Al Jazeera.

But just like then, these attacks will not do anything to stamp out Hezbollah, the resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

“At the end of the day they [are] just bombing, and killing people, and displacing people,” he said.

“[Israel’s attacks] won’t stop anything in the south … The rockets are there, the men are there.”

How many people have been hurt?

As well as those killed in the assault in which Israeli forces killed Nasrallah, reports on Friday indicated at least 76 had been wounded.

On Saturday, Lebanon Civil Defense said one of its staff had been killed while providing emergency services in southern Beirut in the aftermath of the intense Israeli attacks on Friday evening.

One other staff member is in critical condition, Lebanon’s Civil Defense added.

The country’s state-run National News Agency reported that 11 doctors, nurses and paramedics had been killed and 10 others wounded in Israeli army attacks on civil defence centres and a medical clinic.

These attacks were carried out on the towns of Taybeh and Deir Siriane, close to the Israeli border.

Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 700 people since Monday.

In a separate statement, Lebanon’s Health Ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to stop admitting nonemergency cases until the end of next week to make room for patients from Beirut’s southern suburbs.

What about the people in the residential buildings?

Dahiyeh is a densely populated area, home to more than half a million civilians, many of whom had been scrambling to evacuate to safety as Israel started attacking the area last week. Dozens of people had already been killed in air raids on the neighbourhood before Friday.

The neighbourhood was largely destroyed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of “intentionally” placing its headquarters under residential buildings and of using the Lebanese people as “human shields”. While Hezbollah has its headquarters in the area, Dahiyeh “is a suburb, just like any other suburb in the world”, said Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem.

“Many families were starting to think about leaving, weighing their options, but where?” he said, noting that locations across Lebanon have been hit by attacks in recent days. “Currently, everything is being hit.”

One resident who lives in the neighbouring Palestinian refugee camp, Bourj el Barajneh, told Al Jazeera the attack shook the entire area and camp residents are now fleeing to other areas.

Was there any warning?

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a news briefing that Israel did not inform the United States in advance of the attack, but that Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant spoke by phone with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin while the attack was in progress.

The attacks came as reports had emerged in recent days that negotiations for a ceasefire may be under way. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged Israel will continue its attacks.

Speaking at the United Nations in New York City on Friday, just hours before the attacks, he said, “As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely.”

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is also in New York at the UN General Assembly, said in a statement that “the new aggression proves that the Israeli enemy does not care about all international efforts and calls for a ceasefire.”