Israel kills two in Beirut as it intensifies attacks across Lebanon 

An Israeli strike on a residential apartment in Bchamoun in the capital Beirut killed at least two people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, as the Israeli army pressed ahead with its attacks on Lebanon and issued a new evacuation threat for Burj Shemali in the country’s south.

The attack, which took place about 10km (6 miles) southeast of Beirut early on Tuesday, wounded five others, the ministry added.

The Israeli strike came without warning and hit an area outside Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military had previously issued evacuation notices.

Footage circulating online showed at least one apartment in a building engulfed in flames.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said there had been “no letup” in attacks as the Israeli army issued another forced evacuation threat for the southern suburbs of the capital, claiming it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

“This is a place where Hezbollah does have a presence but also has residential buildings and businesses that are being hit,” she said.

Citing the Lebanese Health Ministry, Khodr said at least three people were killed in targeted assassinations overnight in Beirut.

“The Israeli military said it targeted members of the Quds Force, the foreign unit of Iran’s IRGC. This is not the first time the Israeli army has claimed to target the IRGC in Lebanon,” she said.

“Iran did acknowledge that four Iranians were killed in a targeted strike at a hotel in the early days of the conflict. But they said they were civilians.”

The Israeli army has pounded Lebanon with air attacks and launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by Hezbollah on March 2, in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah had not attacked Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire, despite near-daily breaches of the deal by Israel.

Lebanese authorities say at least 1,039 people have since been killed and 2,876 injured in Israeli attacks.

Separately on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israel’s overnight attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, had hit seven areas.

“Enemy warplanes launched seven raids overnight on the southern suburbs, targeting the areas of: Bir al-Abed, Al-Ruwais – outskirts of Al-Manshiyya, Haret Hreik, Sayyed Hadi Nasrallah Highway, Saint Therese, Burj al-Barajneh and Al-Kafaat,” NNA said.

Israeli forces also hit a petrol station belonging to the Amana company in Rashidieh, near the port city of Tyre, sending a large plume of fire into the air.

Israel has repeatedly struck Amana petrol stations since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited on March 2, accusing them of being part of the group’s “economic infrastructure” that can support its military activities.

A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Monday that the conflict has pushed more than 1.2 million people to flee their homes.

That amounts to about one in five people across Lebanon, Stephane Dujarric said during a news briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Beirut, said Israeli attacks in the southern part of the country were making it “extremely difficult” for people south of the Litani River to leave.

“And it’s making it difficult for the Lebanese armed forces to reach anybody who needs help or even to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid,” he added.

On Monday, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the war against Hezbollah must end with a “fundamental change” that includes control of Lebanon up to the Litani River, roughly 30km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he told members of his Religious Zionism party on Monday, comparing it to boundaries Israel has set in Gaza and the occupied Golan Heights.

Lebanese officials have raised concerns that Israel’s recent attacks on bridges linking the south of the country to the capital, Beirut, and other areas suggest the Israeli military is preparing for intensified ground operations.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has continued to fire into northern Israel while clashing with Israeli troops on the ground in Lebanon.

The group said it launched five attacks early Tuesday against Israeli troop gatherings, a barracks, a radar site, and artillery positions amid an ongoing regional escalation.

In a series of statements, the group said it launched drone attacks at dawn on the Liman military barracks in northern Israel.

It also fired rockets at a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Fatima Gate in the town of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon.