At least seven killed in Israeli strikes in Beirut area, Lebanon says

BEIRUT, April 1 (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed and 24 wounded in two Israeli strikes in the Beirut area, the Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday, in attacks that hit vehicles in Beirut’s southern outskirts and in an area just south of the capital.

The strikes are the latest in an escalating Israeli offensive in Lebanon which has killed at least 1,200 people and displaced 1.2 million others. Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran, two days after Iran was attacked by Israel and the United States. Hezbollah’s attack prompted a new Israeli ground and air offensive.

Israel’s military said on Wednesday it carried out two separate strikes targeting a senior Hezbollah commander and another senior member of the Iran-aligned group in the Beirut area, but did not identify them or say whether they had been killed.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported that one strike hit a vehicle in the Khaldeh area south of Beirut, killing two people and wounding three others. A second strike hit vehicles in Beirut’s Jnah area, where the health ministry said at least five people were killed and 21 wounded.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the strikes.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Laila Bassam; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast)