In brief
- A Lebanese military source says an Israeli strike in Beirut killed three people and wounded 15.
- Israel has also declared all areas south of Lebanon's Zahrani River "combat zones".
Israel pounded south Lebanon and struck the Beirut area on Thursday (local time), widening its offensive with the first strike near the country's capital in weeks despite a fragile ceasefire.
A Lebanese military source said an apartment south of Beirut was hit in the second such raid since the truce in the war between Israel and militant group Hezbollah came into effect on 17 April, after war broke out in early March. The Lebanese health ministry said the strike left three dead, including a woman and two children, and 15 wounded.
Israel's military said it "precisely struck in Beirut", without identifying the target.
Israel intensified its attacks in south Lebanon, where at least 11 people, including two children and 21 were wounded, according to the health ministry.
The Lebanese military added that a soldier had been killed in a separate Israeli strike "while he was driving on the road" in the Nabatieh region.
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The strikes come as Lebanon and Israel prepare for a fourth round of talks brokered by the United States next week.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah was supposed to have taken effect on 17 April but has never been observed.
Both sides accuse each other of violating it and justify their attacks by the other camp's alleged breaches of the truce.
'Highest level' of projectiles fired since ceasefire
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres, expressed concern and called on both sides to respect the ceasefire.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said that "Wednesday saw around 670 projectiles fired — the highest level since 17 April".
Lebanon was dragged into the wider Middle East war in early March when Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, prompting Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
The Israeli military on Wednesday local time declared all areas south of Lebanon's Zahrani River, an area roughly 40 kilometres from the border, "combat zones" and told residents to evacuate ahead of attacks against Hezbollah.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on multiple south Lebanon locations, some of them deadly, including successive raids on the city of Nabatieh, one of which it said destroyed a mosque.
An AFP photographer saw fire and a thick plume of smoke rising at dawn and heard bombardment after a strike on a building in Tyre.
Ghazouane Halawani, a resident living near a building hit by a strike, told AFP that he believed Israel wanted to attack the ancient city's "history and its civilisation".
"We're staying here. This is our country, our land, our life," he added.
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