Tens of thousands leave as Israel strikes Lebanon port

At least 28 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the last 24 hours, bringing the total toll since October 2023 to 2,574, the Lebanese government said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Israeli jets struck multiple buildings in Lebanon’s southern coastal city of Tyre, sending up large clouds of black smoke, while Hezbollah confirmed that a top official widely expected to be the militant group’s next leader had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Tens of thousands of people have already fled Tyre as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There were no reports of casualties in Tyre, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings prior to the strikes.

Hezbollah fired another barrage of rockets into Israel, including two that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv before being intercepted. A cloud of smoke could be seen in the sky from the hotel where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was staying on his latest visit. Blinken pushed for a halt to fighting in Gaza and a diplomatic solution to conflict in Lebanon, but Israeli strikes on an historic Lebanese port city proved there was no respite yet.

In Gaza, where Israel has intensified an assault on the northern edge of the territory since killing the leader of Hamas last week, health authorities reported at least 20 people killed in fresh strikes.

War expected to wipe off lebanon’s 9% GDP

The war between Israel and group Hezbollah is expected to wipe nine per cent off Lebanon’s national wealth as measured by GDP, the UN said on Wednesday, with the scale of the economic fallout set to surpass the 2006 war.