Israel Strikes Lebanon's Beirut Hours After Hezbollah Hits Air Base

Israeli forces launched fresh attacks on Lebanon's Beirut on Tuesday, hours after Hezbollah targeted the former's Ramat David Air Base in dawn strikes.

The Israeli forces said on social media handles that they are conducting simultaneous strikes on Beirut and Iran's Tehran aimed at the Hezbollah and "Iranian terror regime".

The Israeli military said it was targeting "Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut", per The Associated Press.

Ahead of the strikes, Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 50 locations in two south Beirut neighbourhoods, warning that the Israeli defense forces will operate against Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas, per Arab News.

Hezbollah shared after the hit on Israel's Ramat David Air Base, stating, "The Islamic Resistance is concerned with defending its land and its people, especially as the 'Israeli' enemy has crossed all limits with its criminality. Its response came against military sites, not as the enemy does by targeting civilians; this is the minimum duty to deter it and prevent it from persisting in its dangerous objectives against Lebanon as a state, a people, and a resistance."

The Lebanese government said at least 52 people were killed in the strikes that came after Hezbollah launched rockets and drones toward Israel in retaliation for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death. An Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Israel is keeping "all options on the table," including a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.

As the two sides trade attacks, the US state department ordered non-emergency personnel and their families to leave Bahrain and Jordan. The advisory was updated to "reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel and family members of government personnel".

The growing war began on Saturday after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that Tehran said killed dozens of civilians and the country's supreme leader, sparking retaliatory salvos.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards targeted a United States air base in Bahrain, the Islamic republic's elite force said in a statement carried on Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency. In Iraq, hundreds of protesters in capital Baghdad, many dressed in black, attempted Sunday to storm the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located, after the killing of Iran's supreme leader. In Jordan, the US embassy in capital Amman said Monday it had temporarily evacuated its staff due to an unspecified threat.

The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.

Many countries deemed safe havens have been hit by Iran, with recent targets including two Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage. Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 per cent of the world's oil passes.