Israel is engaged in several military conflicts at the same time. On the night of October 3, the IDF launched a limited ground operation in Lebanon, the main goal of which is to facilitate the return of 60,000 northern residents displaced by Hezbollah shelling that began a year ago in support of the Palestinian Hamas movement. In addition, the operation in the Gaza Strip continues.
CNN reported that a central Beirut neighborhood was attacked early on the morning of October 3 local time.
Israeli strikes on central Beirut are rare. The attack on the morning of October 3 was the first Israeli attack on the center of the Lebanese capital since the last full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Even then, Israel rarely targeted the city center.
This is the second attack since 2006 targeting the capital Beirut, with the first attack taking place near the Cola Bridge in the early morning of September 30 local time.
Just before the attack on central Beirut, an attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut - a Hezbollah stronghold - destroyed a multi-story building in the Haret Hreik residential area.
The death toll from an airstrike in central Beirut has risen to six after three people were critically injured and died, Lebanon's Ministry of Health said.
All seven injured are still being treated at the hospitals where they were transferred.
Also according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 46 people were killed and 85 injured in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in the past 24 hours.
The latest death toll came as the Israeli military said there were 300 rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel on October 2.
Meanwhile, eight people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a United Nations school building in Gaza on October 2.
Injured victims, including children, were taken to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the attack on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East school building.
The IDF said the Israeli Air Force carried out a "precision strike" on a former girls' school in the area, alleging it was being used by Hamas as a command and control center.
"The command and control center, located inside a complex that was formerly the Nuseirat girls' school, was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel," the IDF statement said.
The IDF added that it had taken “numerous steps” to minimize the danger to civilians, “including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”
