BEIRUT, March 11 (Reuters) – An Israeli strike hit an apartment block in central Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, further widening Israeli attacks in the capital beyond the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs where heavy strikes continued.
Footage showed extensive damage to two floors of the apartment block in the Aicha Bakkar neighbourhood, and smoke rising from the building.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and no immediate reports of casualties.
It would mark the second Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut in four days. On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit a hotel in the seafront Raouche neighbourhood. The Israeli military said that strike targeted five senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force.
Lebanese authorities say nearly 570 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Iran-backed Hezbollah opened fire on March 2 to avenge the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Israel kept up heavy strikes on the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, overnight. The Israeli military has ordered residents of the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Dahiyeh to leave, along with residents of a swathe of southern Lebanon and parts of the east.
Some 700,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, or more than a tenth of the population, the United Nations has reported.
(Writing by Tom Perry. Editing by Mark Potter)
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