Beirut (EFE).- The Lebanese Public Health Emergency Operation Center reported on Thursday that the death toll from the Israeli offensive initiated on Mar. 2 rose to 687, and the number of injured went up to 1,774.
According to the latest report from the government office in the last 24 hours, 53 people were killed, and 188 were injured in attacks perpetrated by Israel against the south and east of the country, as well as Beirut and its surroundings.
98 of the 687 fatalities since the start of the bombings are children, and 304 of the 1,774 injured are also minors, according to the office’s data.
In a second attack, Israel bombed a building in central Beirut on Thursday. The building had been ordered evacuated earlier that day, coinciding with a warning to evacuate a third area of the city.
According to EFE, the building, located just 200 meters from the Cervantes Institute and just over 600 meters from the iconic Mohammad al Amin Mosque, was hit three times in a short period of time, an attack preceded by a first warning explosion.
After the second impact, neighbors in the area began firing into the air to warn of the continuing threat and call for the evacuation of citizens in the vicinity.
Shortly before, Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesman, ordered the evacuation of the Bachoura neighborhood area, later followed by an evacuation warning for another building in the nearby Zuqat el Blat area.
These are the first two official evacuation orders for the Lebanese capital, however, the city has already been the target of three surprise attacks.
Israel has maintained an intense air offensive against Lebanon since Mar. 2, when the Lebanese group Hezbollah also began a series of limited-range attacks against northern Israel, intensified on Wednesday night with the launch of dozens of projectiles and drones.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon expressed concern about the “serious escalation” that occurred overnight, including the launch of approximately 120 projectiles toward Israel and an equal number of artillery attacks against Lebanese territory, as well as seven Israeli airstrikes.
Early Thursday morning, the deadliest attack yet took place in Beirut, killing 12 people and injuring 28 more in the capital’s Ramlet al-Baida beach area.EFE
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