Lebanese PM says 1.2 million people displaced

PM Najib Mikati says the number of people displaced by Israeli attacks in Lebanon has now risen to 1.2 million.

In a statement, the caretaker prime minister also said there was an immediate need for a ceasefire.

_{Syrians, who were living in Lebanon and returned to Syria due to ongoing hostilities, carry belongings at the Jusiyah border crossing, at the Syrian-Lebanese border, Syria, Wednesday}

Hezbollah says it destroyed three Israeli tanks

The Lebanese group says it targeted the Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the village of Maroun al-Ras on the eastern side of the border. Earlier, Hezbollah claimed a deadly ambush against Israeli troops in the same area.

Hezbollah pushes Israeli forces back as civilians flee

As we previously reported, Hezbollah has said its fighters earlier today were able to repel and inflict losses on Israeli troops in Odaisseh and Yaroun.

“Those are two very serious incidents and Hezbollah are now very confident because they have managed to push the Israelis back,” said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Hasbaiyya in southeastern Lebanon. “They are seeing this as a strategic victory.”

Meanwhile, one of the main roads in the area out that is being used by fleeing local residents was bombed again today. “A lot of people have fled those areas and they are doing so in fear and in panic,” said Khan, who noted the road has repeatedly come under attack in recent days.

“That’s one of the only ways out of southern Lebanon under those evacuation orders and Israel has bombed it not just once, not just twice, but three times in 48 hours,” he said.

Every time, he added, the Lebanese army patched it up, but in the latest attack one of its engineers was wounded. “Would you want to travel along that road if you thought there might be an air strike any moment?” asked Khan. “It’s really putting fear and panic into people.”

Three killed in Israeli attack on Damascus

Syrian state media is reporting that at least three civilians have been killed and three wounded in an Israeli strike on the capital Damascus.

Hezbollah announces attack on Israeli infantry unity

The Lebanese group has said that after surveilling Israeli soldiers sheltering in a house outside the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, its fighters detonated an explosive device in the building and then targeted it with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Hezbollah said all members of the unit were either killed or injured, without specifying the number of casualties.

Iran’s missile attack not ‘defensive’: US ambassador to UN

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel and said more sanctions against the country are coming.

“Thankfully, and through close coordination between the United States and Israel, Iran failed to achieve its objectives,” she told the UN. “This outcome does not diminish the fact that this attack, intended to cause significant death and destruction, marked a significant escalation by Iran.”

The US ambassador said that Iran’s attack was not “defensive”.

“The IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran] was not protecting Iran from threats from another member state,” she said. “Instead, the IRGC was acting in solidarity with Hezbollah after the killing of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, who led a terrorist group that has the blood of thousands of Americans, Lebanese, and Israelis on its hands.”

“It is indefensible, and it is unacceptable, and we have a collective responsibility as members of the Security Council to impose additional sanctions on the IRGC for supporting terrorism and for flouting so many agreements,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Thomas-Greenfield warns Iran at the UN Security Council against targeting it or Israel. “Let me be clear: The Iranian regime will be held responsible for its actions. And we strongly warn against Iran – or its proxies – taking actions against the United States, or further actions against Israel,” she said.


Yet bombing Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran by Israel is defensive? Did she forget the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the mediator for Hamas in the ceasefire negotiations... As well as https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-vows-revenge-for-top-irgc-officer-killed-in-beirut-strike-that-took-out-nasrallah/

You have a collective responsibility to act on all atrocities, otherwise Iran will keep invoking article 51:

Also Iran wanted to show they could hit Israel, they hit military bases. They didn't want civilian casualties. Seems like it was a success?



Israeli military chief warns of response to Iran’s missile attack

Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said.

“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” said Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, in a video from an air force base in central Israel, one day after Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

“We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon,” Halevi said.

France recommends its nationals in Iran to leave

France’s embassy in Iran has recommended that French nationals who are permanent residents in the country should leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes.

The message from the embassy, which also urged French nationals visiting Iran to leave immediately, is similar to others given earlier this year when tensions increased between Iran and Israel.

EU aviation agency advises airlines to avoid Iran airspace

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has advised all European airlines to avoid Iranian airspace.

“In view of the Iranian attack … and Israel’s announcement of its intention to retaliate,” the EASA advisory warned carriers “not to perform flights in the airspace of Iran at all flight levels”.

“The recommendation is valid until October 31, 2024 and can be reviewed earlier, and adapted or withdrawn, subject to the revised assessment.”

China urges all parties to exercise restraint – particularly Israel

Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, says his country is “deeply concerned” about the conflict and warned that “an all-out war is on the verge of breaking out”.

“We share the position of the United Nations that any Israeli crossing into Lebanon violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon,” he said, urging countries against further “inflammatory” statements or actions.

“We urge all parties, in particular Israel, to exercise restraint and refrain from any actions that could lead to further escalation of the situation.”

Israeli air strikes hit Bekaa valley

Israeli army has been targeting the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon in the last few days. On Sunday, an air strike on the village of Zaboud in the valley killed 17 members of a family.

Video shared online, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows more attacks by the Israeli forces on Wednesday afternoon:

غارة إسرائيلية على #بوادي في البقاع الشمالي pic.twitter.com/ouv81dmcFm

— kataeb.org (@kataeb_Ar) October 2, 2024

Hezbollah claims rocket attack against Israeli troops

The Lebanese group says it fired a “large salvo” of rockets against a group of Israeli soldiers in the town of Ya’ara in northern Israel.

Israeli strikes level buildings in Chiyah, Lebanon

Hezbollah fires more than 100 rockets at Israel

Of these, the Israeli military said most landed in open areas in the western Galilee region. Two missiles landed in northern Upper Galilee, again falling in an open area. All these rockers were launched in three batches within a timeframe of less than two hours.

Fires break out in north Israel following missile barrage

Israel’s Channel 12 is reporting fires breaking out in some areas of northern Israeli following a rocket attack from Lebanon. The military said in a statement earlier that more than 240 rockets have been launched from Lebanon at northern Israel today.

Israel carries out another strike on Beirut

We’re getting reports that an Israeli attack has targeted Beirut once again.

Three very large explosions

I am standing in the middle of Beirut, and I heard those three very large explosions that took place in Dahiyeh, which is about 7km south of here.

That’s the area where Hezbollah chief Nasrallah was killed last month in the Israeli attack.

Israeli attacks have killed 46 people in Lebanon in last 24 hours

At least 46 people were killed and 85 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the last 24 hours, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. It added that the attacks took place in the southern areas of Nabataba, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel and Mount Lebanon.

The statement comes as Israel launched more air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Video shows aftermath of strike on southern Beirut

Footage shared on X, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows the aftermath of the Israeli attacks on Beirut’s suburbs that we have been reporting on.

بالفيديو: الغارات العنيفة التي استهدفت #الضاحية pic.twitter.com/sk2QgMN1Qd

— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) October 2, 2024

Five killed in Israeli attack on central Beirut

Lebanon’s Health Ministry is saying that at least five people were killed and 11 wounded in Israeli strikes on central Lebanon a while ago.

The attack took place in the Bashoura neighbourhood of Beirut.

‘Calls for de-escalation only emboldened Iran’: Israeli ambassador to UN

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, says Iran will “pay a heavy price” for its missile attack. “This was a deliberate attempt to strike at the very heart of our society,” he told the UN Security Council.

Danon said Israel faces constant attacks and criticised calls by UN members for restraint. The world watched silently as Iran funded and directed attacks against us for the past year,” he said.

“The silence, the routine calls for de-escalation only emboldened Iran.”

Not the assassinations and ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank? The world watched silently as you oppressed, tortured and displaced Palestinians with US funding and protection for many decades.

However it's a nice admission that military bases are the very heart of your society...


Iran’s attack on Israel was a “necessity”

The launch of nearly 200 ballistic missiles was a “necessity” and needed “to restore deterrence”, Iran’s representative to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, said at the UN Security Council.

“Each act of aggression can’t go unpunished. This is the cost this regime must bear,” Iravani said, referring to Israel.

On Tuesday, Iran attacked military and security targets “in full accordance with its right of self-defence” following Israel’s repeated attacks in violation of the country’s territorial integrity, he said.

Israel also breached Iran’s sovereignty by killing Hamas leader Haniyeh, targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killing an Iranian military adviser in Lebanon, he added.

“All key facts that clearly demonstrated Iran’s self-defence.”

Iran is now prepared to take “defensive measures to protect its territorial integrity” should Israel retaliate, Iravani added.

Lebanon remains committed to US-France call for ceasefire

The Lebanese deputy ambassador to the UN, Hadi Hachem, says his country is willing to bolster the presence of its army in the south as a measure towards ending the Israeli war.

“The people of Lebanon and the government of Lebanon reject the war. They want the implementation of Resolution 1701. They want to deploy the Lebanese army in the south along our ground borders, with the support of UNIFIL,” he said.

Hachem was referring to the 2006 resolution to end the Israeli war on Lebanon at the time and pave the way for lasting security along the border.

The deputy envoy also said that Lebanon remains committed to the US-France call for a ceasefire. “Lebanon has agreed to the French-American initiative – that Israel initially agreed to, but then rejected and annihilated with its wave of killing and destruction,” Hachem said.

“We remain committed to the call issued by the American and French presidents. We pledge to implement all the points of the declaration, including an immediate ceasefire. Upon a ceasefire, we are prepared to deploy the Lebanese Army to the area south of the Litany River.”


Lebanon’s FM says Nasrallah agreed to ceasefire before assassination

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire with Israel shortly before he was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in Beirut, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said today, according to the Anadolu news agency.

“He agreed. Yes, the Lebanese side agreed,” said Bou Habib. “We consulted with Hezbollah, [Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih] Berri consulted with Hezbollah, and we informed US and French representatives.”

A joint statement released on September 24 by 12 countries and organisations, including the US and France, called for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to facilitate diplomatic efforts.

Nasrallah was assassinated when Israeli air strikes targeted a southern suburb of Beirut on September 27, killing hundreds of people.

I can't find the source of this other than this

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire with Israel before he was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in Beirut, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said in a PBS interview https://t.co/bHCjPZtgzq

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 2, 2024

UK’s Starmer says UK stands ‘firm with Israel’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterates that Israel had the right to security and to defend itself, when asked about the prospect of Israel retaliating against Iran and the potential role of British forces in any related military action.

“I think it’s very clear that we stand firm with Israel,” Starmer said in response to a question at a news conference in Brussels.

“Israel does have the right to security. Israel does have the right to defend herself, and that is absolutely clear. I’m not going to get drawn further than that, nor get drawn on the role of our own service personnel,” he added.

Nor get drawn into what constitutes self-defense. Does it include killing thousands of civilians and displacing millions? Does it include torture.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/raf-spy-flights-over-gaza-risk-complicity-in-israeli-torture/

Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance flights continue almost daily over Gaza to help Israel locate hostages held by Hamas. Campaigners fear the flight paths may be informed by intelligence Israel obtained through torture.

US seeks to align ‘return message’ to Iran with Israel, top US diplomat says

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell says the Biden administration is seeking to align its position with Israel on any potential response to Iran’s attack but also recognises the Middle East is on a “knife’s edge” and a broader escalation could imperil both Israeli and US interests.

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by Washington-based think tank Carnegie Endowment, Campbell repeated the US view that what Tehran has undertaken was “deeply irresponsible” and that there must be a “return message.”

“I think we recognise, as important as a response of some kind should be, there is a recognition that the region is really balancing on a knife’s edge, and real concerns about an even broader escalation or a continuing one, not just simply an exchange of sort of isolated salvoes, but of more sustained hostility, which could imperil not just Israel, but our strategic interests, as well,” Campbell said.

The attacks from Lebanon into Israel have been “destabilising,” Campbell said, while issuing a warning about sustained conflict with Lebanon.

“I think we tried to underscore our support for some of the actions that Israel has taken. I think we have real wariness about a extended or substantial ground set of operations in Lebanon,” Campbell said.

What about de-escalation, Gaza ceasefire, end of genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, 2-state solution (however impossible that seems now)
The US continues to deflect from the root cause of all the current escalations.

Biden to discuss Israel’s response with Netanyahu

President Biden said he does not support strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in response to its missile attack against Israel. Earlier, “Biden joined a call with the G7 to discuss Iran’s attack … and to coordinate on a response … including new sanctions,” according to a readout of the meeting.

Biden also told reporters that “we’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond but the response but they should respond proportionally.”

The G7 includes the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the UK.

Ex US defence official says ‘Netanyahu does not have to respond overwhelmingly’

While Iran’s missile attack on Israel yesterday was far larger than an earlier one in April, the relatively low number of casualties – one person killed, a Palestinian worker in Jericho – gives Israel an offramp to respond with restraint, Lawrence Korb, a former US Defense Department official and security analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“It means that Netanyahu does not have to respond overwhelmingly,” said Korb. “So in a way that ‘we want them to do something but not do it in such a way that provokes another attack’.

“Israel has to do something to show that they’re not going to sit passively if Iran gets in this struggle that they’re having with Hezbollah and Hamas. But since it was a minimal amount of damage … they can have a more measured response.

“The only way out of this horrible situation, which has gone on for almost a year now, is to have a negotiated settlement.”

President Joe Biden, who is not running for re-election, is now a “lame duck”, Korb said.

“We’re not sure how much influence he has. And we know Netanyahu just ignores President Biden.”

Qatar-Iran meeting focused on Israeli ‘aggression’ in Gaza, Lebanon

Qatar’s emir met Iran’s president in Doha where the discussions focused on Gaza and Lebanon, the two officials said in a joint briefing.

The Emir of Qatar said:

Iran doesn’t want war but will respond if Israel acts: President Pezeshkian

Iran’s President Pezeshkian said that Tehran “is not looking for war but looking forward to peace and calm”, adding that “Israel is forcing us to react”.

In a joint news conference with Qatar’s emir in Doha, Pezeshkian said that Israel assassinated Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 and Iran was asked to hold back.

“We were asked to maintain calm. For the sake of peace, we have maintained self-restraint,” he said.

“If [Israel] acts, we will react more fiercely and harshly. The ominous goals of the Zionist entity are all aimed at destabilising the region. We should work together to steer the region away from all this.”

Iran felt duped by the international community

Iran’s president, who’s only been in office for about two months, was elected on a policy of being a moderate and wanting outreach and better relations with the world. He made it clear in that briefing that he’s been talking about peace and calm in every single speech that he’s made.

But he said Israel has forced Iran’s hand by its actions and talked about their guest in Tehran, Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran having just attended the president’s inauguration.

He said that after the killing, that they got pressured into not responding and they had shown restraint because they had been told that that would be in the offing of a ceasefire in Gaza.

He’s made it clear in other comments he’s made that they feel that they were duped by the international community by doing that, and he says that given the recent events, there was no other thing for Iran to do other than take the action that it did.

GCC condemns escalation in Lebanon, Palestinian territories

The Gulf Cooperation Council has issued a statement after a meeting in Qatar.

Here are the main talking points:

Hamas says it carried out Jaffa shooting attack

Hamas’s military wing has claimed responsibility for a mass shooting in Tel Aviv that left seven people dead and many others wounded.

It said the two attackers, who opened fire on a boulevard and train station in Jaffa on Tuesday evening, were its fighters and hailed from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

The attack came moments before Iran launched a barrage of rockets at Israel, sending people into bomb shelters across the country.


_{Israeli border guards deploy at the scene of a shooting attack along Jersalem Boulevard in Jaffa south of Tel Aviv on Tuesday}

And the cycle of violence continues, more terrorist attacks instead of less.


Israeli forces escalate repressive measures in Hebron

Israeli forces imposed a curfew on Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, and detained and abused several young men, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The heightened repressive measures came a day after two Palestinian men from Hebron opened fire in Jaffa, a neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, killing seven people and injuring several more. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just minutes before Iran launched a barrage of rockets at Israel.

The curfew in Hebron, imposed on three neighbourhoods in the city, would last through the end of the Jewish holidays next Sunday, Israeli forces told residents. Two months ago, the military cut off the same three neighbourhoods from the rest of city, sealing off their entrances and exits with barbed wire.

Hebron is home to some 160,000 Palestinians and about 800 Israelis in illegal settlements who live there with the protection of the Israeli military.

Escalation will lead to ‘further instability’ in the region: Ex US official

A former US State Department official, who resigned earlier this year in protest against the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, warned that the recent escalation risked destabilising several countries in the region.

Annelle Sheline, whose work for the US government focused on the promotion of democracy and human rights, said the next steps Israel and the US take could lead to a broader crisis and impact countries whose governments’ relationships with Israel and the US are in contrast with the populations’ sentiments about the war in Gaza.

She cited Jordan and Saudi Arabia as countries with “significant amounts of oppression and disconnect between the regime’s support for the US and Israel … in contrast to the people who live there”.

“Who knows at which point this might eventually manifest?” Sheline said. “But I do very much see further fraying and erosion of legitimacy of some of these governments.

“This will just lead to further instability down the road, as violence so often does.”

Israel’s army has wiped out 902 Gaza families, officials say

“In one year, 902 families have been wiped off the civil registry,” the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement.

In 1,364 cases, all family members except for one survivor were killed, the office said. In 3,472 cases, only two members of the same family survived.

Death toll increases as central Beirut hit by Israeli air strikes

I am currently in the centre of Beirut, and we’ve been hearing explosions on almost an hourly basis.

The loudest and biggest one happened at around 20 past midnight local time and it came from an area called Bashoura, which is only about a kilometre south of where I’m standing now. The sound reverberated around the buildings and shocked everyone nearby.

We know that a building was targeted – a certain floor on a building.

The Ministry of Public Health said the death toll now stands at five. It started off at two, and three more died of their injuries and there are about eight people in hospital currently being treated for their injuries.

This isn’t the first time central Beirut has been targeted, but it is only the second time in a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

I’m just hearing another explosion and it does sound slightly further away. This is the third explosion we’ve heard.

Number of dead from Israeli air strikes on central Beirut rises to 6

The death toll from the Israeli air strikes on central Beirut earlier tonight has now risen to six, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in the Lebanese capital reports.

“We know so far there have been six fatalities,” Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan reports. “Two died immediately and more died later from their wounds in hospital, and there are still seven people being treated in hospital,” Khan said.

Hezbollah ‘health unit’ target of Israeli strike on central Beirut: Report

The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that the target of an Israeli air strike on central Beirut was an apartment building linked to Hezbollah’s ‘health unit’.

The air strike late on Wednesday night reportedly killed at least six people and started a fire in a multistorey building in the residential Bashoura district.

Hezbollah-aligned al-Manar TV station said the strike targeted the group’s health unit, AP reports. It marks the second time Israel has struck the Lebanese capital’s downtown area this week.

US resident killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon

A resident of the city of Dearborn in the US state of Michigan has been killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon, the Reuters news agency reports.

The US State Department said it was “deeply saddened” by the killing of Kamel Ahmad Jawad, whom a friend and a local group in his home town of Dearborn said was killed in an Israeli air strike, describing him as “one of the kindest and most generous humans”.

Israel forces suffer ‘heavy losses’ on first day of close combat with Hezbollah

We’ve heard from the Israeli army throughout the day about the heavy losses sustained in battles with Hezbollah fighters just across the border in Lebanon, in three separate locations, that resulted in the killing of eight Israeli soldiers and the injury of dozens. Many of them had to be air-lifted.

This is really heavy face-to-face combat that the Israelis must have expected given their experience with similar attempts at invading Lebanon, the last of which was in 2006.

But a very heavy loss to sustain on the first day. On top of that, the Israeli army is confirming that Israel was hit by about 200 rockets from Hezbollah just in the past 24 hours. So the fighting is relentless.

The Israeli army chief, Herzi Halevi, said that Israel will retaliate. It will retaliate against Iran. That it can hit anywhere in the Middle East. Trying to, in spite of all those losses, maintain the position that Israel can strike back and can “hold the line”, if you will, and go further and deeper into Lebanon given the fact that it is enjoying, as we are seeing, a lot of support, especially from the White House.

Two ‘unmanned aircraft’ detected off coast of Israel’s Tel Aviv

Israel’s military has reported that two aerial drones were detected in the airspace off the coast of Tel Aviv following the triggering of air defence alarms.

The Israeli air force intercepted one of the drones “in the maritime space off the coast” of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, and the second crashed down “in an open area”, the military said, adding that there were no casualties.

The military did not say from where the drones originated or the likely target of the attack.

Satellite images show damage to Israel’s F-35 jet fighter airbase after Iran missile strikes

Satellite images of an aircraft hangar at a key Israeli military airbase appear to show a large hole in the roof following a massive barrage of Iranian missiles on Tuesday night, the AP news agency reports.

Images of the Nevatim airbase in southern Israel show damage to the roof in a row of buildings near the main runway, and large pieces of debris can be seen around the building, the AP reports.

Nevatim is home to the Israeli air force’s most advanced aircraft, including the US-produced F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets. It is not clear from the satellite imagery whether any aircraft were in the hangar when it was struck.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the satellite images. Nevatim also sustained light damage during an Iranian missile and drone attack in April.

_{This satellite image taken by Planet Labs PBC shows a damaged hangar at Israel’s Nevatim airbase on Wednesday}

Hezbollah fires surface-to-air missiles at Israeli helicopter

Hezbollah said it fired surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli military helicopter flying over Beit Hillel in northern Israel, forcing it to retreat.

Hezbollah did not say if the helicopter was hit by its missile on Wednesday, and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

It is Hezbollah’s first reported missile attack on an Israeli helicopter since fighting escalated amid Israel’s bombing across Lebanon and the start of its ground offensive in Lebanon’s south this week.

Israel strikes Bekaa Valley – At least 11 people killed in east Lebanon

Four children and three adults were killed when three homes in the Bekaa Valley were destroyed by an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The blast was so powerful that it also destroyed homes located across the street from the houses that were attacked.

At least 6 killed as Israel carries out overnight air strikes on Beirut


_{Fire and smoke rise over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike on Lebanon’s capital on October 3}

_{Fires burn in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut after the air strikes early on Thursday morning}

Apartment blocks in Beirut’s southern suburb destroyed by Israeli air strikes

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Lebanon, Ali Hashem, highlights the extent of the destruction from Israel’s deadly air strikes on the Lebanese capital.

“The devastation is massive here,” says Hashem as he travels to Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have come under sustained Israeli attacks.