More Israeli strikes pound Lebanon overnight

Smoke billowed from the rubble of buildings destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israel issued an unprecedented evacuation warning on March 5 for the entirety of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Lebanon’s capital Beirut has been gripped by panic since Israel issued a vast evacuation order earlier this week. Many residents have attempted to flee the zone, all while Israeli airstrikes have continued to pound Lebanon.

Several Ghanaian members of a United Nations peacekeeping were wounded when their base was hit in southern Lebanon, state media reported, without specifying the source of the attack.

Israel has been targeting southern Lebanon in its battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

Lebanese official media said on Saturday that clashes had erupted on the Lebanon-Syria border as Israel attempted a landing operation, with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah saying its fighters were involved.

Strikes across the Middle East

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said Saturday it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at an air base which houses US military personnel, as Iran pressed attacks across the Gulf.

The oil-rich nation’s state news agency said it thwarted a drone attack on an oilfield near the Emirati border, following at least two reported drone attacks earlier this week that targeted the Ras Tanura refinery in the east.

AFP journalists meanwhile heard explosions in Dubai and Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Saturday, one week into Iran’s retaliatory attacks on targets around the Gulf. A warning siren sounded in Manama, with Bahrain’s interior ministry urging residents in an X post to “head to the nearest safe place”.

The Israeli military also said that air defenses were responding to Iranian missile attacks on Saturday that sparked air raid alerts across the country.