BEIRUT (National Times) In just a few seconds, Israeli strikes reduced six buildings to rubble in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut on Friday, sending rescuers scrambling to the densely-packed residential area searching for survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The succesive strikes shook Beirut and its surroundings a little before 6:30 pm (15:30 GMT), leaving panicked residents scrambling for safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I felt like the building was going to collapse on top of me, as if a rocket was going to hit me and kill me,” said Abeer Hammoud, who lives in Beirut’s southern suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was as if I had been given a new lease of life,” said the teacher in her 40s, still reeling from the shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strikes killed at least two people and injured 76, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a preliminary toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AFP footage showed several clouds of thick grey and pink smoke rising from the Haret Hreik area of the southern suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli army said it carried out “a precise strike” on Hezbollah’s “headquarters”, which Israeli media said targeted group chief Hassan Nasrallah — stirring panic among Lebanese fearful of a wider escalation after nearly a year of near-daily exchanges that had been largely restricted to the border area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Nasrallah was “fine”, but the group has issued no official statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CHILDREN RESCUED ALIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The strikes left craters up to five-metre (16-feet) wide in Haret Hreik, an AFP photographer said, adding that ambulances were coming from all sides while fires burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firefighters battled the blaze while rescuers rushed to find survivors amid the rubble, some using excavators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported two children had been pulled out from under the wreckage alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawyer Houssam al-Jawad, 45, who lives close to the targeted area said the explosions “lasted several seconds and sounded deep and strong, as if it were a successive series of sonic booms”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The windows and doors in the house shook even though it was located two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the site of the strike, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AFP photographer saw people rushing to the outskirts of the southern suburbs carrying clothes and suitcases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahmad Ahmad, in his 60s, said he fled his house in the area after the strikes which felt “like an earthquake”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I saw a strange mass of fire that shook houses around us,” Ahmad said, strolling around the busy Hamra street, adding that he felt “exhausted”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week Israel dramatically intensified its attacks, mostly on Hezbollah’s south Beirut and southern and eastern Lebanese strongholds, killing more than 700 people, according to the health ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement on X that she was “profoundly worried about the potential civilian impact” of the “massive strikes”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The city is still shaking with fear,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BEIRUT (National Times) In just a few seconds, Israeli strikes reduced six buildings to rubble in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut on Friday, sending rescuers scrambling to the densely-packed residential area searching for survivors. The succesive strikes shook Beirut and its surroundings a little before 6:30 pm (15:30 GMT), leaving panicked residents scrambling for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n