Israeli airstrikes pound Beirut

Israeli airstrikes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight and on Friday, smashing up city streets in an escalating conflict ​with Iran-backed Hezbollah that has sent tens of thousands of Lebanese from their homes, Reuters reported.

Israel ordered everyone in the densely-populated suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, to leave before launching strikes that lit ‌up the night sky. It earlier warned civilians to quit swathes of southern and eastern Lebanon, not just areas near its borders.

They were the widest evacuation orders ever given by Israel against Lebanon and prompted a huge exodus of people before bombardments that turned buildings into rubble and took the facades off apartment blocks.

"We’re sleeping here in the streets - some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach," said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who spent the night outside in the capital's downtown district.

"I've never ​slept on the ground like this. I've been forced to. No one even brought a blanket," he said.

Hezbollah said on Friday morning it was fighting an Israeli ground incursion ​in the south, targeting a gathering of military vehicles near the town of Khiyam, and telling residents of Israeli communities near the border to leave.

Lebanon was pulled ⁠into the war in the Middle East on Monday, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel that ignited a new Israeli offensive against the Shi'ite Muslim group - Iran's most powerful regional ally - 15 months after their 2024 war.

Israeli ​attacks on Hezbollah will likely continue even if its joint air war with Iran were to end, a source briefed on Israel's military strategy has told Reuters.

A separate, Lebanese, security source said: "This is about ending Hezbollah once and ​for all", raising the prospect of a longer conflict in the country, where Hezbollah, while diminished, remains a powerful force.