Israel pounds Beirut suburb with airstrikes overnight

Israel’s air force pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Recently, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon. International mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut also killed three people and wounded five.

The ministry gave no further details about the early Friday airstrike on the edge of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut.

An Associated Press journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to an apartment on the first floor of a building.

On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike in Qamatiyeh killed six people, including three children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 13,000 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets almost daily into Israel, drawing retaliation.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported this week, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.