BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 26 (UPI) — A new wave of Israeli extensive airstrikes hit Beirut, its suburbs and other Lebanese regions Tuesday, ahead of an expected cease-fire to end the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah.
For the first time, the Israeli Army issued warnings to evacuate several buildings in several neighborhoods inside Beirut, saying that it “will carry out attacks on the floors where the terrorists are located.”
The warnings triggered fears and panic, prompting residents to leave the city in a chaotic way or seek safety in quarters not listed in the warnings. Dozens sought refuge at the American University Hospital in Ras Beirut.
Three people were killed and 10 were injured when an apartment was hit and set on fire in the Barbour area. Israel hit for the second time the Nuwairi neighborhood in which seven people were killed and 37 wounded in the earlier air strike that flattened their four-story building.
The targeted building in Nuwairi was inhabited by displaced families who has fled from their villages, according to the official Lebanese news agency.
Rescue teams rushed to the site to evacuate the casualties and remove the rubble.
Beirut’s southern suburbs were the mostly hit after Israel carried a series of air attacks, causing powerful explosions and big cloud of smoke. Dozens of buildings were flattened.
The state-run Lebanese news agency said “a belt of fire” surrounds the southern suburbs.
The Israeli Army said it has begun “an extensive” wave of airstrikes in Beirut on Tuesday afternoon after it issued evacuation warnings to 20 buildings in the southern suburbs.
The Army said it struck “20 Hezbollah sites within two minutes” and the “fast and extensive wave of airstrikes was carried out by eight fighter jets,” The Time of Israel reported.
It claimed that seven targeted buildings were used by Hezbollah for “the management and storage of funds, including headquarters, vaults and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, known to be used by Hezbollah as a quasi-bank.”
The other 13 sites included “a Hezbollah aerial forces center, an intelligence division command room, weapon depots, and other military infrastructure,” it added.
The Israeli claims could not be confirmed independently.
The strikes also targeted villages in southern and eastern Lebanon. One hit the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh near the southern port city of Tyre where two people, including a child, were killed and 20 wounded.
The attack on the village of Shakra in southern Lebanon killed 6 people and wounded 4 others.
The Israeli airstrikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene the security cabinet and expectedly approve a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah.
Netanyahu will give a video statement Tuesday at 8 p.m. local time after cabinet meeting, during which the ministers are expected to approve the ceasefire in Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.