Strikes resume on south Beirut after Hochstein visit

Successive rounds of Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut Thursday after Israeli military evacuation warnings, while Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks including on a base near south Israel's Ashdod, its deepest so far.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported three raids "within the third round of strikes on the southern suburbs today", saying they hit the Haret Hreik and Hadath areas.

It had earlier reported two other rounds of three raids each on the southern suburbs, including a "very violent strike" on Haret Hreik and a raid on the Kafaat neighborhood that destroyed a building and damaged others nearby.

AFPTV footage showed columns of smoke rising from the area, usually a densely populated residential district but now largely emptied.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on social media platform X issued several rounds of evacuation warnings for areas in the southern suburbs, saying the military would target Hezbollah "facilities and interests", pinpointing six buildings.

The Israeli military in a statement said its air force carried out strikes on "Hezbollah command centers and terror infrastructure" in the southern suburbs, which it has hit repeatedly since September 23 when it escalated air raids.

The Israeli army also issued evacuation warnings for areas in and around the southern coastal city of Tyre, while the NNA reported Israeli strikes in south and east Lebanon.

The renewed Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs came after two days of relative calm in Beirut and its suburbs while U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein visited, seeking to broker an end to the almost two-month-long Israel-Hezbollah war.

In Beirut on Wednesday, the U.S. envoy met twice with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of Hezbollah.

Wednesday's meeting "made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can", Hochstein told reporters in the Lebanese capital.

Hochstein had said on Tuesday that an end to the war was "within our grasp".

Lebanon's health ministry said on Wednesday that at least 3,558 people had been killed in the violence since October 2023.

Most of the deaths have been since September this year, when Israel began its massive bombing campaign and later sent ground forces in to Lebanon.