Beirut, Lebanon: An Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday April 6, 2026, as Israel's army said it was targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, while Lebanon reported broad strikes in the country's south.
AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing across the skyline after the strike on the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold which has largely emptied of residents following repeated Israeli attacks and evacuation warnings.
Israel's army said it was "striking Hezbollah terror targets in Beirut", after saying it would target the area. Israel has launched strikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion in the south since March 2, when Hezbollah entered the Middle East war on the side of its backer Iran.
Shortly before the warning, an AFP journalist in the southern suburbs saw just a few shops open, as well as a gas station belonging to the Al-Amana fuel company destroyed in a previous raid.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that in recent days, it had struck two Al-Amana petrol stations "which were controlled by Hezbollah and served as significant financial infrastructure" supporting the group's activities.
Fresh portraits mourning Iran's former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli attack on February 28 that triggered the Middle East war, were visible along some roads.
In south Lebanon, the health ministry said four people were killed in a raid on a car in Kfar Rumman, near the city of Nabatiyeh.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) also reported deadly strikes elsewhere in the country's south and east, including in the Tyre district village of Burj Rahal, where an AFP correspondent saw mangled metal and items including blankets and a mattress among the rubble of destroyed buildings. "The preliminary toll is 15 homes damaged, which are no longer liveable," said Burj Rahal mayor Daoud Ezzedine. "The residents want to return home, but unfortunately they will not be able to," he added.
Hezbollah announced attacks on Israeli targets in south Lebanon and across the border, including launching an advanced missile and attack drones at a base near the central city of Hadera.
Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli attack killed a paramedic from the Hezbollah-allied Risala Scouts association on Monday. It also said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier. Lebanon says 1,497 people have been killed since the war erupted, including 57 health workers.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the WHO "has verified 92 attacks on health facilities, medical vehicles, personnel, and warehouses".
"These acts cannot become the new norm," he added.
On Sunday, a strike in the capital's Jnah neighbourhood hit near the country's largest public medical facility, killing five people, including a 15-year-old girl and two Sudanese nationals, the ministry said.
Also Sunday, a strike on the town of Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut, killed three people including two women, authorities said. Among the dead were Pierre Mouawad, a local official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, and his wife.
Residents told local media that the strike hit the apartment above Mouawad's. Israel's military said Monday that it had struck a "terrorist target" east of Beirut and was reviewing the incident after "reports of casualties among Lebanese civilians not involved in the fighting".
Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visited troops in southern Lebanon on Sunday and pledged to intensify strikes against Hezbollah.
