By Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry and James Mackenzie
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -An Israeli airstrike targeted a Hezbollah commander in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, two security sources in Lebanon said, as Israel struck the Hezbollah-controlled area of the Lebanese capital for a second consecutive day.
The sources declined to identify who had been targeted in the strike and said his fate was unknown.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, but gave no details.
The airstrike hit a building in the usually busy Ghobeiry neighbourhood. One of the security sources shared a photo showing damage to the top floor of the five-storey building.
Israel carried out a new wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and said it would keep up pressure on the armed group as its Iran-backed foe fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, amid growing fears of all-out war in the Middle East.
A day after Israeli forces launched airstrikes that Lebanese authorities said had killed more than 500 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for safety, Israel’s military chief said attacks on Hezbollah would be accelerated.
“The situation requires continued, intense action in all arenas,” said Military Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi after holding a security assessment.
After almost a year of war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.
Lebanese authorities said 558 people had been killed, including 50 children and 94 women, in Israel’s airstrikes on Monday. A further 1,835 were wounded, they said, and tens of thousands more have fled for safety.
Calls for diplomacy are growing as the conflict worsens, with UN human rights chief Volker Turk urging all states and actors with influence to avert further escalation in Lebanon.
“I believe that we can still find a path forward to get de-escalation between Israel and across that northern border between Israel and Lebanon and bring about a diplomatic solution that allows people to return to their home,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told MSNBC.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Tom Perry in Beirut and Clauda Tanios and Nadine Awadallah in Dubai and Miro Maman and Ronen Zvulun in Haifa and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Sachin Ravikumar in London; writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Sharon Singleton and Timothy Heritage)
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