Following IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee’s evacuation warning to civilians in the Hadath and Choueifat-Al-Omrousiya areas in Lebanon on Saturday morning, the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar reported strikes in the Hadath, a municipality bordering Dahiyeh, in southern Beirut.
The IDF later confirmed that the IAF had conducted morning strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Dahieh area.
Dahiyeh is a Hezbollah stronghold and has been the target of the bulk of Israeli strikes in Beirut.
Adraee’s warning noted that the area housed Hezbollah facilities and that the IDF was set to target these sites.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية: الحدثشويفات العمروسية ⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني… pic.twitter.com/8blJGf5wqO
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 23, 2024
The spokesperson instructed civilians to move at least 500 meters from the area as they were currently located near Hezbollah facilities and interests.
The targets for the round of strikes included several Hezbollah command centers and additional terrorist infrastructure.
Earlier strikes
Earlier, the IDF reported that the air force had been conducting strikes on terrorist targets in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh.
The strikes targeted Hezbollah command centers, weapons storage facilities, and additional infrastructure intentionally embedded by the Lebanese terror organization in civilian areas in an effort to use the populace as a human shield, the IDF added.
Israel targeted the head of Hezbollah’s operations department, Muhammad Haydar, in a Friday night airstrike on Beirut, Israeli sources told KAN and Sky News Arabia on Saturday. It is yet unclear if the elimination attempt was successful.
Haydar is the commander of Hezbollah’s 910 unit, and is considered to be Hezbollah’s most senior remaining figure, according to Maariv.
Prior to the airstrikes, the Israeli military took a number of precautionary measures, it noted, including collecting intelligence, using aerial surveillance, and issuing warnings before striking targets.
Haydar is wanted by the United States and is listed in the United States Federal Register as a specially designated global terrorist. He reportedly has a $7 million bounty on his head, according to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath.
At least four people were killed and 23 wounded in the attack in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood, the Lebanese health ministry reported.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said early on Saturday that the attack resulted in a large number of fatalities and injuries and destroyed an eight-story building. Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
