22 Killed in Israeli Beirut Airstrikes, Lebanese Health Ministry Reports

Lebanese civil defence members and other people inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Basta neighborhood of Beirut on Oct. 10, 2024. Hassan Fneich/ AFP via Getty Images

Dozens of people were injured and killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Oct. 10, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

The Lebanese health ministry’s Emergency Operations Center assessed that 22 people had died and 117 had been injured.

The strikes come as Israeli forces continued to intensify military operations throughout Lebanon, after more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah; an internationally-designated terrorist organization with both a militant and political presence within Lebanese society.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Israeli military for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Israeli forces have had sporadic clashes with Hezbollah over the years.

The latest fighting began after Hezbollah launched rockets at Shebaa Farms—an Israeli-controlled area of the disputed Golan Heights—on Oct. 8, 2023.

The terror group claimed solidarity with the Palestinian people just hours after Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel and killed more than 1200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel then launched retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) returned fire after that initial attack in the Shebaa Farms area, and the two sides have traded fire since.

The IDF ramped up its aerial campaign against Hezbollah in recent weeks, conducting dozens of strikes across Lebanon to degrade Hezbollah’s leadership and fighting capabilities.

The Israeli military also launched cross-border ground operations into Lebanon last week.

Before these latest Beirut strikes, Lebanon’s crisis response unit said Israeli shellfire and airstrikes over the past 24 hours had killed 28 people and wounded 113, bringing the total to 2,169 killed and 10,212 people wounded in Lebanon since the war erupted last October.

Lebanese health authorities said at least four more people were killed on Oct. 10 in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, reported two of its soldiers were also injured after an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower the soldiers were manning at a UNIFIL base in Naqoura, causing them to fall.

Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel since the war began, as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, including both in northern Israel since last year and in southern Lebanon since Israeli ground forces entered the country last week.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburb late Oct. 6, 2024. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

Countries around the world, including the United States, have stepped up efforts in recent days to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon, as the situation there continues to deteriorate.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in an Oct. 10 statement, said he has renewed calls to the U.N. Security Council to exert pressure on Israel to stop its military operations and help implement a cease-fire.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.