Israeli airforce pounds Beirut, Lebanon death toll rises

Reuters:

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 6 – Israel pounded Beirut’s ​southern suburbs with airstrikes on Friday, stepping up a war with Hezbollah that has forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes and killed more than 200, according to a health ‌ministry toll.

Israel ordered everyone in the densely-populated suburbs, Hezbollah’s main stronghold in the capital, to leave on Thursday before launching strikes that lit up the night sky. It has also warned civilians to quit swathes of southern and eastern Lebanon – heartlands of the Lebanese armed Shi’ite Muslim group.

They were the widest evacuation orders ever given by Israel in Lebanon and prompted a huge displacement of people before the bombardments that continued into Friday, sending columns of smoke billowing across the Beirut skyline.

“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.

The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated that 300,000 people had been displaced in Lebanon, with the ⁠number of people who could be displaced potentially exceeding one million.