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Israel early Saturday morning carried out massive air strikes on central Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, according to local Lebanese media, which has reported several deaths.
An eight-storey residential building was completely destroyed with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in the capital's Basta district, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA). Videos on social media showed the purported wreckage of the building at which missiles were reportedly fired at around 4am local time, as per a report in Al- Jazeera, which said that this marked the fourth Israeli air strike this week targeting a central area of Beirut. Israeli fighter jets have been carrying out repeated raids on the city over the past 24 hours. Al-Jazeera further reported that Lebanon's Ministry of Health has confirmed at least four casualties, while the number of injured stands at 23, following an Israeli attack in Basta area. The National News Agency says Israeli war planes "completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles" and left a crater in the ground. The Israeli military has not made any immediate comments on the reported strikes. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had this September carried out air strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and sent troops into southern Lebanon. This was in response to Hezbollah's rocket strikes into Israel to show solidarity with Hamas group that had carried out the deadly October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, a report in the Times of Israel, said that according to rumours swirling on Hebrew news outlets and social media, the target of a massive Israeli strike in central Beirut this morning was either new Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem or senior Hezbollah officer Talal Hamiya. Qassem was appointed to lead the Iran-backed terror group after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah's underground headquarters in southern Beirut in September this year. (ANI)
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