22 killed, 117 injured in Israeli air strikes on Beirut

New Delhi, Oct 11: Israeli air strikes in central Beirut killed 22 people and injured 117 on Thursday late evening Lebanon’s health ministry said.The strikes happened in Bachoura, in the city. Israeli fighter jets bombed residential buildings in two crowded neighbourhoods, Nweiri and Basta, without giving any evacuation warnings. Most Israeli strikes have focused on southern Beirut, where Hizbollah has its base.Loud explosions were heard, and rescuers were seen searching through the rubble. Many injured were taken to the American University hospital.Media reports suggested that the target might have been Wafiq Safa, a high-ranking security official in Hizbollah and brother-in-law of the late Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.However, Safa survived the attack as reported by news agencies. This strike was the largest one on central Beirut so far. This attack came after two quiet days in Beirut, which had been experiencing heavy strikes in recent weeks.Earlier on Thursday, two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a UN watchtower in southern Lebanon. The UN said Israel had repeatedly hit UN positions in the past 24 hours, calling it a serious violation of international law.Meanwhile, Hizbollah fired rockets and destroyed an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon, where Israeli soldiers continue their ground operations against Hizbollah. Israeli forces claimed that Hezbollah had fired about 190 rockets into Israel.In another Israeli strike on Thursday, four people were killed and 17 were injured in the village of Karak in eastern Lebanon. Over the past year, Lebanon’s government estimates that around 1.2 million people have fled their homes due to the conflict.