Photo : Collected
Hundreds of families crammed into vehicles and fled Beirut's southern suburbs overnight into Saturday after Israel struck the area and warned some districts to evacuate, AFP correspondents said.
Fresh strikes struck Beirut's southern suburbs early Saturday after huge raids hours before that the Israeli army said targeted Hezbollah's "central headquarters" in the area. Bottlenecks formed in the middle of the night on normally deserted streets of the capital, many of them in darkness due to power cuts.
In downtown Beirut's Martyrs' Square, or along the seaside corniche boardwalk area, desolate men, women and young children were walking around or sitting on the ground.
"We were at home when there was the call to evacuate. We took our identity papers, some belongings and we left," said Syrian refugee Radwan Msallam, who lives in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The father of six children aged between three and 17 said they had "nowhere to go", adding that they could not return to his war-torn home country.
Israel's military late Friday warned residents of several areas of Hezbollah's southern suburbs to leave, after conducting a wave of strikes on the densely populated district that Lebanon's health ministry said killed at least six and wounded 91.
The military then said that "in a short while" it would strike three buildings in south Beirut where it said Hezbollah had stored weapons, a claim Hezbollah dismissed as "false".
Rescuers worked through the night searching for survivors in Friday's strikes, the biggest to hit Beirut's southern suburbs since Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said seven buildings were destroyed in the strikes. Leading Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was the target of Friday's strikes.
Messenger/Disha
