AFP footage showed orange plumes of smoke rising over the densely populated suburb in Hezbollah's main bastion of south Beirut (Fadel ITANI) (Fadel ITANI/AFP/AFP)
AFP: Israel launched fresh strikes on south Beirut early Thursday, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president-elect Donald Trump spoke about the "Iranian threat".
The Israeli premier was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, calling the re-election "history's greatest comeback".
Over the phone on Wednesday, the pair "agreed to work together for Israel's security" and "discussed the Iranian threat", Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Not long afterwards, the Israeli military launched its latest strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah's main bastion of south Beirut, with AFP footage showing orange flashes and plumes of smoke over the densely populated suburb.
The Israeli army had issued evacuation orders ahead of the strikes, calling on people to leave four neighbourhoods, including one near the international airport.
In Lebanon's east, the country's health ministry said Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed 40 people, with rescuers combing the rubble for survivors.
"The series of Israeli enemy strikes on the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek" killed "40 people and injured 53", the ministry said in a statement.
Hezbollah had pledged the result of the US election would have no bearing on the war, which escalated in September as the Israeli military widened its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
In a televised speech recorded before Trump's victory but aired afterwards, new Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said: "We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants" ready to fight.
"What will stop this... war is the battlefield," he said.
Qassem, who became Hezbollah secretary-general last week, warned that nowhere in Israel would be "off-limits".
Hezbollah announced Wednesday it had Iran-made Fatah 110 missiles, a weapon with a 300-kilometre (186-mile) range that military expert Riad Kahwaji described as the group's "most accurate".
The group claimed a slew of attacks on Israel on Wednesday, including two that targeted naval bases near the Israeli city of Haifa and two near commercial hub Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah began its low-intensity cross-border campaign last year in support of ally Hamas after the Palestinian militants' October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel escalated its air raids on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley from September 23, sending in ground troops a week later.
More than a year of fighting in Lebanon has killed at least 3,050 people, the health ministry said Wednesday.
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