Israel strikes Tyre in south Lebanon after evacuation warnings

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israel's military renewed its strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Saturday after issuing evacuation warnings, following attacks on nearby buildings that damaged a hospital in the city.

Israel has carried out strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south after Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran on March 2.

The Israeli army struck three buildings it had warned people to evacuate, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA).

An AFP correspondent said that a missile hit an 11-storey building northeast of Tyre, completely destroying it and reducing it to a pile of rubble that covered a nearby gas station.

A second raid on a five-storey building near the city leveled half of it, leaving the other half standing.

The third strike was on the Burj al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp, southeast of the city.

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages, despite Israeli evacuation warnings covering most of the city and a broad swathe of the south.

Saturday's Israeli warning followed strikes that wounded at least 11 people, including three civil defence members, and damaged a major hospital, the health ministry in Beirut said.

The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the NNA that it would "remain open to provide the necessary medical care" despite the damage.

Overnight strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and also causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, management said.

A wave of attacks hit the Tyre area on Saturday, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, the correspondent said.

Another Israeli airstrike targeted and completely destroyed a mosque in the town of Baraashit in the Bint Jbeil district, the NNA reported. — AFP