00:01This beachfront area in Beirut is usually bustling.
00:04But on Thursday, it was sealed off by security forces after a deadly overnight Israeli strike.
00:10The victims included people who had pitched tents along the promenade,
00:14or were sleeping in their cars, after being displaced by Israeli strikes near their homes.
00:19They thought central Beirut would be safer, but the war caught up with them.
00:24We are against the escalation. We don't want war. We want peace.
00:28We want our children to live in this country and secure their future in this country, so they can live.
00:34War leads nowhere except to destruction, devastation and death.
00:40Israel, though, has announced quite the opposite.
00:43It said it would expand its offensive in Lebanon and pinned the blame on the Lebanese government.
00:51I warned the Lebanese president that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory
00:57and prevent Hezbollah from threatening the northern communities and firing at Israel,
01:01we will take the territory and do it ourselves.
01:07Israel said the goal was to restore calm and security to its northern communities,
01:11after Hezbollah fired around 200 rockets at the country Wednesday night, injuring two people,
01:17in what Israel described as the group's biggest barrage since the war began.
01:22Residents there welcomed the news.
01:24I very much hope that the military operation will do the job all the way.
01:29That means no more sirens, no more rockets, moving up to the Litani River, creating a proper buffer.
01:36On Thursday, Israel went further, ordering more of the south to evacuate, up to the Zorani River,
01:42nearly 40 kilometers from the border and north of the Litani, both vital water sources for southern Lebanon.
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