Beirut, Lebanon

Lebanon reported three deaths Tuesday in Israeli strikes on a Beirut building said to be housing displaced people, with state media describing a "belt of fire" around Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

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The heavy bombardment came as Israel weighed a proposed ceasefire in its two-month war with Hezbollah, following nearly a year of limited cross-border clashes linked to the Gaza war.

"The Israeli strike on the Nweiri area in Beirut destroyed a four-storey building housing displaced people," said Lebanon's official National News Agency, or NNA.

The health ministry said three people were killed and 26 wounded in the strikes on a densely populated area where people displaced by the Israeli aerial bombardment had sought refuge.

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Also read: West Asia crisis updates: Israeli strikes kill 19 in Gaza, 11 in Beirut

"We were at home and suddenly the strike hit. We were blown away, and the walls fell on top of us," said Rola Jaafar, who lives in the building facing the one that was targeted.

She cried as she held her son and was relieved to find him alive and well after he was briefly lost in the chaos following the strike.

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Shortly after the Beirut strike, "a belt of fire has encircled (Beirut's) southern suburbs, as raids targeted Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath, with smoke covering most of the southern suburbs and reaching Beirut," NNA said.

The south Beirut strikes came amid a flurry of Israeli evacuation calls for the Hezbollah stronghold that included at least 20 buildings, following earlier morning strikes.

Also read: US Deploys B-52s Near West Asia, Amid Israel-Iran Tensions

On Saturday, a strike on the densely populated Basta neighbourhood, near Nweiri, killed at least 29 people, the health ministry said.

On October 10, Israeli strikes on the Nweiri and Basta districts killed at least 22 people authorities said, while targeting Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa, who made it out alive, a source close to the group had told AFP.

Israel ramped up its aerial bombing of Lebanon on September 23, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and the south and east of the country. It later sent ground troops across the southern border.

The war has killed at least 3,799 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.

On the Israeli side, the Lebanon hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.

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