Strike hits Beirut apartment block as Lebanon grapples with 700,000 displaced

By Abdelaziz Boumzar, Emilie Madi, Jana Choukeir and Alexander Cornwell

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 11 (Reuters) – An Israeli strike hit an apartment block in central Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese authorities said, further widening Israeli attacks in the capital beyond the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs where heavy bombardment continued.

Israel launched an offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah after it opened fire on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli strikes have killed nearly 600 people in Lebanon, and uprooted 700,000 more, Lebanese authorities say.

The Israeli military ordered reinforcements to the area bordering Lebanon including its elite Golani Brigade. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Hezbollah fighters were braced for the possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the south.

‘THIS IS A NIGHTMARE’

Footage showed heavy damage to two floors of the apartment block in Beirut’s Aicha Bakkar neighbourhood, and smoke rising from the building. Four people were wounded in the strike, the Lebanese health ministry said.

There was no comment from the Israeli military on the strike.

“The sound was indescribable, the fear is indescribable. Enough is enough, enough. This is a nightmare, when will it end?” said Bassima Ramadan, a resident of the building across the street who was woken up by the strike around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT). 

It would mark the second Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut in four days. On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit a hotel in the seafront Raouche neighbourhood. The Israeli military said that strike killed five senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which established Hezbollah in 1982.

Israel kept up heavy strikes on the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, overnight and into Wednesday, sending towers of smoke billowing across the skyline.

Israel has ordered residents of the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Dahiyeh to leave, along with residents of a swathe of southern Lebanon and parts of the east – all areas where Hezbollah has a grip on security and political sway.

‘I’M AFRAID, I’M SCARED’

Over 100,000 people are in organised shelters, while others are staying with friends, family or are on the streets.

After fleeing her village in the south, Mariam Rida, 73, said she spent $110 for a night at a hotel and then three nights sleeping on the dirt under a Beirut bridge.

“I want to go back to my hometown. I’m afraid, I’m scared for myself. There are strikes here and there are strikes there, I’m confused about where to go,” said Rida, who has spent the last few nights sleeping at a Beirut school-turned-shelter.

Lebanese authorities reported on Tuesday that 570 people had been killed by Israeli strikes since March 2. Adding to that toll, the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed seven people in the eastern Bekaa Valley on Wednesday morning, and another seven in south Lebanon.   

The Israeli military says it has struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets since March 2, launching airstrikes in the south, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the Bekaa Valley.

Israeli soldiers carried out raids in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. The Air Force killed several militants in the south, it said, without specifying how many people were killed, where the incident took place or why lethal force was used.

The Israeli military has sent more soldiers into south Lebanon, where some of its troops had remained since 2024, establishing what it has called forward defensive positions to guard against the risk of Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah fighters are embedded within villages in southern Lebanon, including in areas surrounding five Israeli military posts in the south.

(Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry, Ahmad Al Kerdi and Khalil Ashawi in Beirut; John Irish in Paris; Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Potter, Sharon Singleton, William Maclean)