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Beirut/Anadolu Agency (AFP) – Eleven people, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, were killed and ten others wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday targeting the towns of Taybeh and Deir Siryan in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that “eleven people were killed and ten others, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, were wounded in Israeli airstrikes that targeted Civil Defense centers and clinics belonging to the Islamic Health Authority in the towns of Taybeh and Deir Siryan in southern Lebanon,” without providing further details.
On Friday night/Saturday morning, towns in central, eastern, and southern Lebanon were subjected to Israeli airstrikes, described as the “most intense” since October 8, 2013, resulting in deaths and injuries.
This morning, Israel announced the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in the airstrike that targeted the party's headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday. An Israeli military spokesperson stated via X, “Hassan Nasrallah was killed,” but Hezbollah has not yet confirmed this.
– What is Nasrallah's fate?
“Hassan Nasrallah has been killed,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israeli army, via the “X” platform on Saturday.
Another army spokesman, Captain David Abraham, confirmed to AFP the “elimination” of the Hezbollah secretary-general. However, a source close to Hezbollah in Beirut said that contact had been lost with Nasrallah since Friday evening.
Shortly after the airstrikes on Friday evening, a source close to Hezbollah confirmed that its secretary-general was “fine.” But on Saturday morning, another source close to the Iranian-backed party reported that contact had been lost with Hassan Nasrallah since Friday evening, without confirming his death.
The 64-year-old Hezbollah secretary-general has lived in hiding for many years and rarely appears in public.
– What happened on Friday?
Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday evening, causing a massive explosion that reverberated throughout Beirut and its surroundings, sparking widespread panic and fear among residents. Local media broadcast live footage showing plumes of smoke rising from several locations in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The attack destroyed dozens of buildings, forced hundreds to flee, and left at least six people dead, according to a report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The successive strikes created massive craters, some up to five meters in diameter, in the Haret Hreik area, according to an AFP photographer.
Residents told AFP they heard a series of explosions and that their homes shook as they occurred.
The Israeli army announced that it had "carried out a precision strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the southern suburbs" of Beirut.
According to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, the headquarters "is located beneath residential buildings in the heart of the southern suburbs of Beirut."
According to a source close to Hezbollah, the airstrikes targeted buildings located within a residential area that houses institutions, headquarters, and offices belonging to the party and its members of parliament.
– Intense Nighttime Bombardment
The bombardment of the southern suburbs continued overnight, and on Saturday morning, the Israeli army announced it had targeted Hezbollah positions in eastern Lebanon. Hundreds of families fled Beirut's southern suburbs overnight as Israeli airstrikes hit, after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to residents of some neighborhoods.
Men, women, and children gathered in Martyrs' Square in the city center and on the Ain al-Mreisseh Corniche, where they slept on the ground.
Hezbollah, for its part, announced that it had launched rockets at northern Israel on Saturday.
Since September 23, the Israeli army has been waging its "most intense and widespread" offensive against Lebanon since the start of the conflict with Hezbollah nearly a year ago. As of Friday morning, the offensive had resulted in 726 deaths, including children and women, and 2,173 injuries, according to Anadolu Agency's monitoring of Lebanese authorities' data.
The number of displaced persons registered in shelters approved by the National Operations Room in Lebanon reached 86,600 by Friday evening. The number of shelters reached 644, including public schools, educational complexes, vocational institutes, agricultural centers, and other facilities distributed across various governorates, according to the Lebanese government's Disaster Risk Management Unit. Since October 8, Lebanese and Palestinian factions in Lebanon, most notably Hezbollah, have been exchanging daily fire with the Israeli army across the Blue Line, resulting in hundreds of casualties, mostly on the Lebanese side.
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