Israeli attacks in Lebanon intensify. Intense bombing in Beirut, beyond Hezbollah strongholds

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched new airstrikes on capitals in Iran and Lebanon on Thursday evening, and in Beirut they also targeted the city's central area, raising fears that the war is spreading beyond the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long dominated by Hezbollah.

After Iran and Hezbollah launched an attack on more than 50 Israeli targets, including military bases, Israel issued a blanket evacuation order for southern Lebanon, including major Lebanese cities like Nabatieh and dozens of villages, The Guardian and The New York Times (NYT) wrote.

Thursday's bombings in Beirut, in an area not far from trendy bars, exclusive restaurants and high schools, deepened the sense that areas of the city once considered relatively safe are no longer safe from IDF attacks.

In Lebanon, where Israeli forces say they are attacking Hezbollah and infrastructure of the Shiite militia founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, 680 people have died and more than 800,000 have been displaced since the war began, according to Lebanese officials. Nearly 100 children have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced, according to the international organization War Child.

Netanyahu says Hezbollah will pay 'a heavy price'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Lebanese government to take steps to disarm Hezbollah.

“We will make Hezbollah pay a heavy price, and the Lebanese government had better get ahead of us and participate in this action,” Netanyahu said at a press conference Thursday evening.

The IDF also struck Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold on the southern outskirts of Beirut. The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for one of the neighborhoods in the area, but according to NYT reporters, two of the airstrikes this evening targeted neighborhoods for which no such alerts had been issued.

A new Israeli evacuation order was also issued for southern Lebanon. The alert covers an area of ​​up to about 40 kilometers from the border between the two countries. An IDF spokesman urged residents in the area to move north of the Zahrani River “for their safety” before the army began shelling what it described as Hezbollah targets.

The order targets major Israeli cities, including Nabatieh, and dozens of Lebanese villages.

The message of the Lebanese Prime Minister

“I am addressing you today while Beirut is under bombardment,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a televised address Thursday night, shortly after Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut struck just a few hundred meters from the Lebanese government headquarters.

“We cannot accept, under any circumstances, that Lebanon once again becomes an open arena for other people's wars,” he said, in an allusion to the history marked by clashes between Hezbollah and its Iranian backers on the one hand, and Israel on the other.

Prime Minister Nawah Salam said his government, formed last year, was engaged in negotiations to prevent the conflict from escalating.