– Enemy warplanes have carried out several attacks in the southern suburbs, writes the state media National News Agency, referring to Israeli airstrikes. According to them, there will be six attacks in the same area. The Israeli military (IDF) announced earlier this evening that it will expand its attacks against Hezbollah. They asked people to evacuate and stay away from coastal areas south of the Awali River in Lebanon. At 20.40 Norwegian time, the spokesman for the IDF, Avichay Adraee, issued a new evacuation notice on X. There he urges the inhabitants of the southern suburbs of Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath Beirut to flee the area. The IDF warns of airstrikes ahead of X. Photo: Screenshot / X – You are close to Hezbollah’s facilities, and the IDF will continue to operate against them in the near future. For your own safety and that of your family, you must evacuate this building and the surrounding buildings immediately and get at least 500 meters away. Israel continued to bomb southern Beirut throughout the evening, claiming to have hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters on X. The IDF frequently updates its X channel with the progress of the war. Photo: Screenshot / X The sirens are going off in Israel At 22.22, AFP reports that air sirens are going off in central Israel, after several rockets are said to have been launched from Lebanon. According to the IDF, there will be five long-range missiles. Large bangs are said to have been heard in the Tel Aviv area, reports the Times of Israel. Some of the rockets are said to have been shot down, while the rest hit open terrain. According to Hezbollah, these were intended for an intelligence base near Tel Aviv. This is the third time the alarm has gone off today, each time following attacks by different groups. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Extensive air raids One person who is in Beirut now is Gunnar Gabrielsen. He is a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces, currently on leave, and works in South Sudan for an African humanitarian organization. He has been to Lebanon a lot in the last decade, and has worked for the UN there, among other things. Gabrielsen says he is relatively safe in the area he is in, as all the attacks have been aimed at the southern part of the city. – It is very limited where the attacks take place. It is consistent in the southern boroughs. These are Shia areas, and are Hezbollah’s center of gravity, he says to news. Gunnar Gabrielsen is currently in Beirut, and has previously worked in the country under the UN. Photo: Frode Fjerdingstad / news Gabrielsen singles out Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa as Hezbollah’s center of gravity in the country. Right now, air strikes are taking place against all three areas, according to the lieutenant colonel. – If you are north of these Shia areas, the city is quite untouched, while in the southern suburbs there seem to be attacks twice a day, and it has been like that for several days now. The IDF is also closing four areas in the north of Israel, calling these “closed military zones”. Access to the areas of Rosh Ha Nikra, Shlomi, Hanita and Arab al Aramshe will be prohibited. Israel carried out airstrikes earlier today in southern Lebanon, where it claims to have hit more than 120 targets. Over 100 fighter jets are said to have been used in this operation, which lasted approximately one hour. This map shows areas in Lebanon that have been bombed in the past. 1.2 million displaced According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, approximately 1.2 million in Lebanon have been forced to flee by Israeli attacks. According to Claudio Feo, country director in Lebanon for Norwegian People’s Aid who is in Beirut, there are people fleeing everywhere. – I have not heard any explosions, but the streets are full of displaced people. In the south it is almost deserted. Today we calculated that 85 percent of our staff has been displaced. Some have fled to Syria and Iraq, he says. Published 07.10.2024, at 20.14 Updated 07.10.2024, at 23.34
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