Israel carried out a deadly air raid Thursday on a Hezbollah rescue facility in central Beirut, Lebanese sources said, after multiple Israeli ground troops were killed near the border.<\/p>\n
The second strike targeting the capital’s centre this week follows Iran launching its largest missile attack yet on its arch-foe Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn Tehran would pay for its “big mistake”.<\/p>\n
Iran, which backs Hezbollah, said it would step up its response if Israel retaliates, defying calls for de-escalation in a war that has cost more than 1,000 lives in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The latest Israeli strike hit a Hezbollah rescue facility, a source close to the group told AFP, killing at least six people, according to a Lebanese health ministry toll.<\/p>\n
AFP journalists in Beirut heard a loud explosion and reported some buildings shaking.<\/p>\n
Israel, shifting its focus from the Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, says it is trying to secure its border with Lebanon so tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by nearly a year of exchanges of fire with Hezbollah can return home.<\/p>\n