00:00The fresh Israeli airstrike has begun targeting southern suburbs of Beirut.
00:04After the IDF signalled plans for a major new bombing campaign,
00:08the warning triggered panic on the streets of the Lebanese capital as people attempted to flee.
00:14It comes as a far-right minister warns the areas will soon resemble parts of war-devastated Gaza.
00:20And as the IDF expands its control in southern Lebanon.
00:24Well, our senior reporter Catherine Norris-Trent is in Beirut.
00:28We can cross live to her now.
00:31Catherine, I hope you're staying safe there.
00:33This latest attack got underway just a few minutes before we came on air about an hour ago.
00:39What's the very latest?
00:43Good evening, Sharon, from a very tense Beirut this evening.
00:47So what we've been seeing in the past hour is a number of strikes.
00:51I counted five of them on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are behind me over there.
00:57So we've seen loud flashes, of course, of light and then large plumes of black smoke rising into the air.
01:07This was expected after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders across swathes of Beirut's southern suburbs
01:17in the middle of the afternoon across a huge area, really.
01:21Most of the southern suburbs, known as the Dahye, behind me, which is home to a large population,
01:29hundreds of thousands of people, but is also known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
01:33And Israel signaled that it would be carrying out an extensive bombing campaign there.
01:39In fact, the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotovic, went on Israeli TV saying that he hoped
01:46that these suburbs of Beirut behind me would soon resemble Han Yunis in Wonton, Gaza,
01:53which, of course, have been reduced to rubble.
01:56So this mass evacuation order earlier sent people fleeing onto the streets in droves.
02:02We saw the roads of Beirut absolutely clogged up with traffic as people tried to get out as quickly as
02:08they could.
02:09Other people, not wanting to wait for the traffic to clear up, set out on foot,
02:14just carrying their belongings in a few bags.
02:17So that really has seen a mass evacuation of these southern suburbs of Beirut
02:22for the first time since this conflict began.
02:25A lot of people sleeping out now under the cold and wondering what this night will hold for them.
02:31And Catherine, I see you say huge numbers of residents fleeing, not for the first time from any of them.
02:36Israel saying it's launching a new phase of this war.
02:40And France says it's set to strengthen its cooperation with the Lebanese armed forces.
02:45Just how concerned are people there about what's likely to come?
02:52People are extremely worried here in Beirut and other people, of course, across the country, across Lebanon.
02:59So, of course, in Beirut, the immediate danger they're facing is from this bombing campaign.
03:05And that sent them out onto the streets, despite the cold weather Lebanon is experiencing here at night.
03:10And despite the fact that many of them can't afford alternative accommodation, they've had to flee their homes once again.
03:17Many of them, you know, had to flee back in 2024 in the conflict then and several times in the
03:23past.
03:24So across the country, there's a sense of tension, really, as this conflict now escalates into another day.
03:32In the south of Lebanon, the Israeli army has launched a ground offensive there, sending in troops and warning residents,
03:40anyone south of the Letani River, to move away from the area.
03:44That's around 10% of Lebanon's total surface area.
03:48So you can imagine that's been sending people onto the streets there as well.
03:52And there have been direct clashes, not air bombings or rockets or drone strikes,
03:58but direct clashes reported between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters there in the south.
04:02So there are many fears about where this could go next.
04:06Emmanuel Macron, the French president, trying to calm things down in a flurry of diplomacy.
04:10In fact, the Lebanese president reached out to him, asking Emmanuel Macron to contact the Israeli prime minister,
04:17begging him not to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut.
04:20But it seems that that call for now hasn't been heeded.
04:23And Catherine, Lebanon, of course, drawn into this war on Monday when Hezbollah, you mentioned it there,
04:28the militant group striking out against Israel.
04:31We saw the government there speaking quite harshly about the militant group.
04:36That was something that we hadn't seen the last time around,
04:39during the last escalation of hostilities between the two sides.
04:42Just how exactly has the government been responding to this?
04:46Is there concern perhaps about a potential civil war erupting?
04:53Yeah, there absolutely are concerns about where this could lead,
04:56whether it could fragment further Israeli society.
05:00Now, under a peace deal, a ceasefire signed in November 2024,
05:05after the last conflict here, there were calls for Hezbollah to lay down its arms.
05:11That was the terms of that truce at that time.
05:13And to come out of the area in the south of Lebanon, again, south of the Litani River.
05:18Now, Israel has flagged up several times their concerns that Hezbollah hasn't done so.
05:24In fact, we know that from diplomatic cables to the U.S., which have been leaked out since,
05:29they say that they have targeted Hezbollah militants in the south several times since then.
05:35So when Hezbollah entered this conflict, really, responding to the death,
05:40the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran,
05:43they sent six rockets over the border into Israel.
05:47Well, that was really the green light for Israel to come in with many forces, divisions,
05:53to mount this ground campaign in the south to try and flush out Hezbollah.
05:57They want to set up a buffer zone there.
05:59And then, of course, we've seen this extensive air campaign in the south of the country,
06:04in Beirut tonight, in the southern suburbs, but also elsewhere in Lebanon,
06:08in the east and also in the north.
06:10Catherine, we'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much for joining us with that.
06:14Catherine Norris-Trent, our senior reporter,
06:16joining us live from Beirut as southern suburbs there come under Israeli fire.
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