Lebanon says ‘Israeli’ strike on Beirut seafront kills 8

• An ‘Israeli’ airstrike on a seafront in central Beirut killed eight people and wounded 3.
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah launched a "joint and integrated operation" targeting over 50 ‘Israeli’ sites.

An ‘Israeli’ strike on central Beirut's seafront killed eight people early on Thursday, Lebanon's health ministry said, another attack in the heart of the capital, as Iran-backed Hezbollah launched more missiles at ‘Israel’.

The ‘Israeli’ military said separately it had carried out strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs overnight against Hezbollah, which had announced a major new operation against ‘Israel’.

In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said "the Israeli enemy strike on Ramlet al-Bayda" in the centre of Beirut killed eight people and wounded 31.

The seaside attack was the third in the heart of the capital since the Middle East war began.

Displaced people have been sleeping rough or in tents on the streets of Beirut, including in the seaside area of Ramlet al-Bayda, where some shelters were hit by shrapnel from Thursday's strike.

‘Israel’ has also repeatedly hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, where the ‘Israeli’ military said on Thursday it had struck 10 Hezbollah targets.

On Thursday, strikes on Aramoun, a residential area south of Beirut and outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds, also killed three people and wounded a child, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Hezbollah operation

Hezbollah said early Thursday that it had fired off missiles at an ‘Israeli’ military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and another military base south of Haifa.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked ‘Israel’ in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-‘Israeli’ strikes, and the multiple ceasefire violations by ‘Israel’ since November 2024.

‘Israel’, which kept up its strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, has since launched air raids across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.

Its assault has killed more than 630 people, according to Lebanese authorities, while more than 800,000 people have registered as displaced, with around 126,000 of them staying in collective shelters.

Late Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on ‘Israel’ to halt its ground offensive in Lebanon and for Iran-backed group Hezbollah to "immediately" stop attacks, after speaking with the country's president Joseph Aoun.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said earlier that they had carried out a joint missile operation with ally Hezbollah against targets in ‘Israel’.