Women, children killed in new Israeli blitz on Lebanon

And Israel’s military confirmed a Hezbollah attack on the northern city of Haifa, in which 10 people were hurt by shrapnel.

An Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut on Sunday. Picture: AP

A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs overnight on Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of southern Lebanon.

Israel’s military confirmed a Hezbollah attack on the northern city of Haifa, although it was not immediately clear whether shrapnel from “fallen projectiles” was from rockets or interceptors. Hezbollah said it tried to hit a nearby naval base.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated 10 people, most of them hurt by shrapnel.

Beirut’s skyline lit up again late on Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on September 23. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

A separate Israeli strike earlier on Sunday in the town of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, killed six people, including three children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 30 strikes overnight into Sunday, while Israel’s military said about 130 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory. “It was very difficult. All of us in Beirut could hear everything,” resident Haytham Al-Darazi said. Another resident, Maxime Jawad, called it “a night of terror”.

One strike killed three sisters and their aunt in the coastal village of Jiyyeh. “This is a civilian home, and the biggest evidence is those martyred are four women,” said a neighbour, Ali Al Hajj.

A man checks the damage along the old road leading to Beirut International airport on the outskirts of the capital. Picture: AFP

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.

The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

At least 1400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed, and 1.2 million driven from their homes.

Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.

The Israeli military is now setting up a forward operating base close to a UN peacekeeping mission on the border in southern Lebanon, a UN official said. The base puts peacekeepers at risk, the official said.

UNIFIL, created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion, refused the Israeli military’s request to vacate some of its positions ahead of the ground incursion.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel, which prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu described such calls by Mr Macron as a “disgrace”.

Mr Macron’s office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Mr Netanyahu’s remarks “excessive”.

Later on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu’s office said the two leaders had spoken and agreed to promote “a dialogue” on the matter. Mr Macron’s office called the discussion “frank” and said both leaders “accepted their divergence of views”.

AP