BEIRUT: Israel issued evacuation orders Sunday for parts of south Beirut where it is targeting Hezbollah, which fired on several Israeli military bases around the coastal city of Haifa.
AFP reports, Israel ordered residents of three areas in the capital’s southern suburbs to leave ahead of planned strikes on multiple buildings, in a warning published on X by military spokesman Avichay Adraee.
Further south, overnight Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling hit the southern town of Khiam, some six kilometres (four miles) from the border, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported early Sunday.
The bombardment came after Israel’s military reported a “heavy rocket barrage” on Haifa late Saturday and said a synagogue was hit, wounding two civilians.
READ ALSO: Israel Pummels South Beirut as Lebanon Mulls Truce Plan
Israel has escalated its bombing of Lebanon since September 23 and has since sent in ground troops, following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah.
In the Palestinian territory, the civil defence agency reported 24 people killed in strikes Saturday as death toll crosses 43,000 mostly women and children.
Security services in Israel said two flares landed near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in the town of Caesarea, south of Haifa, but he was not home.
The incident comes about a month after a drone targeted the same residence, which Hezbollah claimed.
The Israeli military said aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command centre”.
Hezbollah fired around 80 projectiles at Israel on Saturday, the military said.
