Israeli airstrikes in front of Beirut hospital kill four people, including a child – The Irish Times

At least four were killed, including a child, and 24 were wounded when one of the Israeli airstrikes on Beirut on Monday evening struck just outside the entrance to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public hospital in Lebanon.

The attack was among 13 airstrikes carried out across southern Beirut on Monday evening. The Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah-linked targets.

Israel has also accused Hezbollah of operating out of the nearby Sahel Hospital, also in the capital’s southern suburbs. This hospital was evacuated and was not damaged.

Israel accused Hezbollah of storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker beneath another hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, although it said it would not strike the complex.

The Sahel hospital in Dahiya was evacuated soon after and its director Fadi Alameh told Reuters the allegations were untrue.

Israel provided no evidence for its claim that cash was stored underneath the hospital.

Sirens sounded in central Israel on Tuesday as a shell was discovered crossing into Lebanon and landing in an open area, the army said on Tuesday.

Alarms were sounded in the Samaria region and in Modiin Illit, the Israeli military added in a statement.

Israel’s multi-layered air defense system has intercepted the vast majority of missiles and drones fired at it since the start of the Gaza war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel on Tuesday, the first stop on a wider Middle East tour aimed at resuming ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip and discussing the future of the enclave after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, but any breakthrough ahead of looming elections in the US looks elusive.

The top US diplomat’s latest trip – his 11th to the region since Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, sparking the Gaza War – comes as Israel intensifies its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave and in Lebanon against affiliated Iran Hezbollah. police.

Mr Blinken’s planned week-long trip, which will include stops in Jordan on Wednesday and Doha, also comes as the region prepares for Israel’s response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack on Israel.

Conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the Iran-backed group began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.

The situation has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah’s top leaders and sending ground troops across the border. Hezbollah, for its part, fired missiles deep into Israel. – Agencies