Israel Strikes North Beirut Suburb, South Lebanon
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the offices of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a Hezbollah-linked financial institution, in the city of Baalbeck in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on March 2, 2026. ©NIDAL SOLH / AFP

An Israeli strike hit an apartment building in Al-Nabaa, a northern Beirut suburb that had been targeted a day earlier, Lebanese state media said on Saturday, also reporting strikes in the country's south.

An overnight Israeli strike killed a dozen medical staff at a clinic in south Lebanon, health authorities said earlier Saturday, after Iran-backed Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem said his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the militant group attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

An AFP correspondent in northeast Beirut saw rescue workers at the scene and damage including a hole in a building, outside Hezbollah's strongholds in the capital's southern suburbs.

The state-run National News Agency said "an Israeli strike targeted the Nabaa-Burj Hammoud area for a second day."

The same building had been struck on Friday without causing casualties.

Burj Hammoud is a densely populated, mixed area known for its large Armenian-Lebanese community.

Levon Ghazalian, 42, who lives in the building next door, said "it's the first time this happens" in the area, which was spared in the previous conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024.

"All the neighbours are afraid," he told AFP, staring at the scene with his daughter.

Hanadi Hachem, 50, who was in her pyjamas, said "there's no safety anymore... you never know where a strike will come from".

She said she and some family members were sleeping in their car out of fear.

In the suburbs of the southern coastal city of Sidon, state media reported a strike targeted an apartment in the Haret Saida area.

An AFP correspondent there said the strike hit a residential building in the densely populated area, causing a fire, with rescue workers attending the scene.

Health authorities said an overnight Israeli strike killed 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses working at a healthcare centre in the town of Burj Qalawiya.

The Israeli army said on Saturday that a day earlier it struck Hezbollah operatives "who were bringing rockets into a weapons depot" in Majdal, around seven kilometres (four miles) from Burj Qalawiya.

On a visit to Lebanon that began on Friday, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah to "stop the war" and launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal to support Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

The NNA also reported on Friday that Israeli shells hit a United Nations base hosting Nepali peacekeepers in the southern border town of Mais al-Jabal.

AFP

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