The Israeli military launched a fresh wave of devastating airstrikes on the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on Saturday, causing widespread destruction to residential buildings and severely damaging a major hospital. The assault came after Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings for tens of thousands of residents, yet around 20,000 people remain in the city, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages who have nowhere else to flee. The strikes have drawn sharp international condemnation as they continue to endanger civilian lives and critical infrastructure, with the Lebanese Health Ministry reporting at least 32 people injured, including three paramedics, following the attacks. The bombing campaign, which began after Hezbollah entered the wider Middle East war on March 2 in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader by US‑Israeli forces, has now claimed over 1,400 lives across Lebanon.
Among the most alarming incidents was the severe damage inflicted upon the Lebanese Italian Hospital in Tyre’s Al Hosh neighbourhood. The Israeli airstrikes destroyed two nearby buildings overnight, shattering the hospital’s windows and causing suspended ceilings to collapse inside the facility. Despite the destruction, the hospital’s director, Youssef Jaafar, confirmed that the medical center would “remain open to provide the necessary medical care” to the wounded, demonstrating extraordinary resilience in the face of indiscriminate bombing. An AFP correspondent witnessed a missile strike an 11 story building northeast of Tyre, reducing it entirely to rubble that blanketed a nearby petrol station, while a second raid levelled half of a five story building and a third strike hit the Burj al‑Shamali Palestinian refugee camp. A wave of attacks also targeted Tyre’s port, striking a small boat and damaging several others moored nearby, further crippling the city’s essential maritime infrastructure.
The Israeli military’s disregard for international protocols has extended to United Nations peacekeeping forces operating in southern Lebanon. According to a UN security official who spoke to AFP, Israeli forces destroyed 17 surveillance cameras linked to the UNIFIL main headquarters in the coastal town of Naqura within a 24 hour period. UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel confirmed that Israeli soldiers had destroyed all cameras facing Minghy Street at the mission’s headquarters, adding that the cameras “appear to have been destroyed by some kind of laser”. Ardiel also noted that Israeli soldiers had been “undertaking massive demolitions of buildings in the village,” with the strength of the blasts causing damage to UNIFIL’s headquarters itself. These actions come just days after three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed in two separate incidents, with a UN security source attributing one of the attacks to Israeli tank fire. The bodies of the three fallen Indonesian soldiers were returned to Jakarta on Saturday, where President Prabowo Subianto presided over a solemn ceremony, with family members weeping over their flag draped coffins. Indonesia has called on the UN Security Council to urgently investigate the attacks and strengthen protections for peacekeepers, warning that Israel’s incursion places UN personnel in “sustained danger”.
The Israeli assault was not confined to southern Lebanon. Dawn strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated area that has been repeatedly bombed throughout the conflict. The Israeli military claimed it had “completed an additional wave of strikes targeting command centers belonging to the Quds Force Lebanon corps in Beirut” and “two headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad”. In eastern Lebanon, Israeli warplanes destroyed a vital bridge in the West Bekaa region, specifically targeting the crossing that links the towns of Sohmor and Machghara over the Litani River. The Israeli army claimed the strikes were aimed at “preventing the transfer of reinforcements and weapons to Hezbollah,” yet these bridges form part of a crucial local road network used by residents for daily movement, effectively isolating communities and hindering civilian access to essential services. The National News Agency also reported that Israeli forces abducted a civilian, Sami Imad Saab, a livestock breeder, from the town of Shebaa near the Israeli border at around 3:00 am on Saturday, marking at least the third time Israeli forces have seized someone from south Lebanon since the war began. As the conflict enters its sixth week, Lebanon’s medical and civilian infrastructure continues to bear the brunt of an escalating war that shows no signs of abating.