Israel strikes south Beirut, claims it captured Hezbollah members

Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday, the first attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in days, as its military said it had captured two members of the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon.An earlier Israeli strike had hit the upscale, predominantly Christian area of Hazmieh near Beirut, with Israel saying it targeted a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm.AFPTV’s live broadcast showed a cloud of smoke over the capital’s southern suburbs, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported at least five strikes on the area, with low Israeli warplanes heard across Beirut and its surroundings.The Israeli military also announced it was “striking Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut” after having called on residents to leave the southern suburbs beforehand.Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Israeli-US attack.Israel has since launched strikes across Lebanon, killing at least 1,039 people and sent ground troops into the country’s south.