Lebanon says 13 killed in Israeli strike near southern Beirut hospital
The strike appeared to hit the car park of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a hospital source told Reuters news agency.
The health ministry said 57 people had been injured, seven of whom were in a critical condition.
It was among 13 air strikes that hit south Beirut on Monday evening. The Israeli military said it was attacking facilities linked to Hezbollah.
An Israeli spokesman had earlier warned people to move away from several locations in southern Beirut, however Rafik Hariri hospital was not among the locations mentioned.
Videos from the Dahiyeh neighbourhood in southern Beirut, where seven locations to be targeted were announced in advance, showed locals fleeing in vehicles and on foot as the strikes began hitting.
One location identified as a target by the Israeli army was roughly 400m from Beirut airport, the only international airport serving Lebanon.
Local media shared images of some windows in an airport building that were blown in the blast.
Israel has not commented since issuing the earlier evacuation warnings.
Separately, the Israeli military said earlier on Monday that it had identified a Hezbollah bunker concealed under a different hospital in southern Beirut, which has since been evacuated.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said without providing evidence that the bunker under the Sahel hospital in Haret Hreik held hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold that was being used to fund Hezbollah's attacks on Israel.
The director of Sahel hospital denied there was a bunker underneath it and called on the Lebanese army to inspect the site.
Israel appears to have expanded its war against Hezbollah beyond military infrastructure and says it is targeting the group's financial networks.
On Sunday night Israel carried out air strikes targeting branches of a financial association linked with Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, as well as the south and east of the country.
FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93p3g1v1z4o
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