Israeli strike kills at least six in central Beirut as foreign nationals flee

An Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Bashoura has killed at least six people
Israel has said at least eight of its soldiers were killed during clashes at the Lebanon border on Wednesday, after Iran launched a barrage of 200 missiles into the country on Tuesday
The first UK chartered flight to leave Lebanon arrived in Birmingham last night, with more evacuations expected on Thursday
Israel’s Foreign Minister has banned the UN Secretary-General António Guterres from the country, accusing him of being biased against Israel

At least six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Beirut overnight, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The strike, near the residential Bashoura district, hit not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament and no warning was issued ahead of the blast.

It comes as governments around the world scramble to evacuate their citizens from the country, which has endured repeated airstrikes from Israel over the past few weeks.

British citizens arrived in Birmingham International Airport last night on the first UK chartered evacuation flight to leave Lebanon since the conflict, with more flights expected later today. Israel was pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah while conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children.

The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon. It said seven troops were killed in two Hezbollah attacks in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, without elaborating.

It followed an earlier announcement of the first Israeli combat death in Lebanon since the start of the incursion — a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade.

A firefighter stands in front of an apartment hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut. / Credit: AP

Israel says it is carrying out the strikes in response to repeated rocket attacks by Hezbollah from across its northern border with Lebanon since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which sparked the current conflict in Gaza.

More than 41,000 people killed in the besieged territory, according to Palestinian health officials, who say just over half the dead have been women and children.

In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong war that triggered the widening conflict rages with no end in sight, Israeli ground and air operations in the territory’s second-largest city of Khan Younis killed at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.

Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Damascus on Wednesday evening, killing three people and wounding at least three others.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to address the spiralling conflict in Middle East.

It comes after Iran launched its biggest single missile strike into Israeli territory on Tuesday in response to the attacks on Lebanon.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN said his country launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday as a deterrent to further Israeli violence.

His Israeli counterpart called the barrage an “unprecedented act of aggression”.

That same evening, seven people were killed in a stabbing and shooting attack in Tel Aviv, including a mother who died while shielding her nine-month-old son.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late Tuesday to retaliate, and an Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel did so.

US President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.

As international leaders sought a resolution to the conflict in Lebanon and Gaza, the United Nations said Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country was a “political statement”.

A rescue worker surveys an apartment hit by an airstrike in Beirut. / Credit: AP

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said foreign minister Israel Katz saying Guterres is “persona non grata” is “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel”.

Katz accuses Guterres of being biased against Israel, and says he never condemned Hamas’ October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

Israel also claims some staff from the UN aid agency helping Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, are Hamas members who participated in the attacks.

Dujarric countered that Guterres has repeatedly condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence.

He stressed that the UN still engages with Israel “at the operational level and other levels”.