Beirut, October 6 (RHC)-- The Israeli regime has conducted dozens of ferocious airstrikes against the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, pressing on with its months-long escalation against the country.  The attacks targeted the city on Saturday, reported the country’s National News Agency, which described some of the raids as “very violent.”  

The raids appeared to be focused on the capital’s Dahiyieh neighborhood, where Israeli warplanes struck the Haret Hreik, Hadath, Mount Lebanon, and Bourj el-Barajneh among other areas.  Footage showed a massive ball of fire erupting into the air following one of the strikes against Dahiyieh.Footage showed a massive ball of fire erupting into the air following one of the strikes against the Dahiyieh neighborhood.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network identified the precise target of the attack on Dahiyeh as the Total fuel station and warehouses storing medical equipment and supplies near the airport road.  The warehouse “contained a large quantity of oxygen cylinders. This caused a fire and huge explosions after the flames were reinforced with oxygen,” the report said.

The regime has escalated its deadly attacks against the country after launching a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7th last year.  According to Lebanon’s health ministry, the attacks have so far claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, including 127 children and 261 women.

Over the past weeks, the attacks have been mostly focused on Beirut, where the regime assassinated Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, during intense airstrikes against the capital in late September.

The movement has, on the other hand, been targeting the occupied Palestinian territories with numerous retaliatory operations.

Also on Saturday, it targeted a group of the enemy’s forces in the Bayad Blida site with artillery shells, struck another one in the Manara settlement with a barrage of rockets, inflicting casualties upon it, and fired a squadron of kamikaze drones against the Samson Base, a command preparation center and regional preparation unit.

The group also repelled an attempt by an Israeli infantry force to advance towards the vicinity of the village of Odaisseh in southern Lebanon. “The fighters of the Islamic Resistance engaged in clashes with the advancing force, which led to a massive explosion within the unit, forcing it to retreat,” the group said in a statement, noting that the confrontation resulted in casualties among the Israeli troops.

Israeli forces also suffered casualties after the movement struck a Merkava tank with a guided missile as it was advancing towards the al-Bat Heights towards the end of the Maroun forest, which is likewise located in southern Lebanon.

Other targets struck by Hezbollah during the day included the Ramat David airbase near the coastal city of Haifa, which was hit with Fadi-1 missiles, and  the Sasa settlement that came under fire with two Falaq-2 projectiles.

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah’s fighters had repelled infiltration attempts by the regime’s ground forces into southern Lebanon too, trapping the invading troops in several ambushes, killing more than a dozen of them, and destroying several of their Merkava tanks.