Israeli strikes near Beirut hospital kills 18

Blinken presses Netanyahu on Gaza truce

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM:

Israel kept up its bombing of Lebanon on Tuesday after a late-night strike that killed 18 people near a Beirut hospital, state media reported, as its war on Hezbollah approached the one-month mark.

The latest deaths brought the overall toll in Lebanon since September 23 to at least 1,552, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher due to data gaps.

The official National News Agency said four strikes hit Beirut's embattled southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, with AFP footage showing plumes of smoke rising over the area.

The strikes forced Hezbollah to cut short a press conference after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for the area.

An Israeli strike hit a target several hundred metres (yards) away from the venue just minutes after reporters left, an AFP video journalist said.

One raid in the Ghobeiri area levelled an 11-storey apartment complex, AFP images showed.

In the country's south, the Lebanese Red Cross said three paramedics were wounded in a strike on Nabatiyeh as they carried out a rescue mission in coordination with UN peacekeepers.

The strikes on Nabatiyeh created a "belt of fire," with scores of residential buildings, shops and cafes wiped out in "less than 30 seconds", NNA said, calling it the heaviest Israeli bombardment of the city since the start of the war. "One street looked like a terrifying battlefield," NNA said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday to seize on the killing of Hamas's leader to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, also calling for more aid to reach the war-battered territory.

During his meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken "underscored the need to capitalise" on the Israeli military's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

This would be done by "securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike," he added.