Israel-Lebanon live: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly targeted in Beirut after Netanyahu warning

Two people are dead and 76 were wounded in an Israeli strike on Haret Hreik, in the Dahieh suburbs of Beirut, according to the preliminary toll from the Lebanese ministry of health.

The death toll was expected to rise as the removal of the rubble continues.

Al Jazeera reporter Zeina Khodr said from the scene of the devastation: “This attack was massive. I have covered a lot of the aftermath of Israeli air strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but nothing like this.

“The smoke is still billowing. The area of devastation is so large and wide. We’re talking about at least six to seven residential buildings levelled to the ground.”

The United States did not have advanced warning of an Israeli strike in Beirut, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday.

“The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

It was revealed that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing.

Singh declined to say what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Austin about the operation and whether it indeed targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Pentagon also declined to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader was still alive.

Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen is reporting that the Israeli raids targeted residential neighbuorhoods in Haret Hreik, where six buildings including a residential block were “levelled to the ground”.

The Lebanese Civil Defense confirmed that its teams are working to extinguish the fire that broke out in the scene of destruction and are working to evacuate the injured and retrieve bodies.

Lebanon‘s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the latest Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, multiple news websites are reporting.

AFP and Iranian state news are both reporting that he is safe and survived the assassination attempt, but still no official word from the group.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel's attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday show it "does not care" about efforts to bring about a ceasefire.

Mikati's press office sent a statement while he was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where the U.S. and other countries had made a call for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The huge strike in Beirut took place only about 700 to 800m from a school where displaced people from the south of Lebanon have taken refuge, the BBC reports.

Nafiseh Kohnavard was reporting from the school, where more than 1000 displaced people are staying, when she suddenly heard huge booms.

She said women and children were screaming and crying and she saw some people faint, falling on the ground.

Israel’s military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement that the Hezbollah HQ was “intentionally built under residential buildings” in the city’s southern Dahieh area “as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields”.

He said: “Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organisation that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely.”

Israeli military says it carried out a “precise strike” on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut.

An airstrikes hit one of Beirut’s heavily-populated southern suburbs on Friday as blasts were heard throughout the Lebanese capital sending thick black smoke billowing across the sky.

The strike came an hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.

Israeli Prime Minister has today told the UN that Israel “yearns for peace” and “will make peace again” but added that it must defend itself against “savage” enemies.