Israel escalates Beirut bombing, accused of killing 73 in Gaza strike

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Fighting raged on two fronts yesterday as Israel targeted what it said was a Hezbollah “command centre” in the Lebanese capital, while in Gaza rescuers reported 73 people killed in a single air strike.

The strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed group of attempting to assassinate him by targeting his residence.

It also came as Israelis marked the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said Israel’s strikes on Beirut hit a residential building in Haret Hreik near a mosque and a hospital.

The Israeli military said it hit the “command centre of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters” and underground weapons facility in Beirut and that it killed three Hezbollah militants in other strikes.

It later said about 70 projectiles fired from Lebanon crossed into Israel within a matter of minutes, and that it intercepted some of them.

Gaza’s civil defence agency meanwhile said an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory’s north.

“Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza,” said civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal. The Israeli military said it struck a “Hamas terror target”.

It added that the toll figures given by Gaza authorities “do not align” with the information it possessed.

The military pushed on with its offensives in both Gaza and Lebanon, where it said its forces “struck approximately 175” targets. The military said it continued to operate in northern, central and southern parts of Gaza.

“The troops eliminated dozens of terrorists during close-quarter encounters on the ground and aerial strikes” across Gaza, it said.