Black Smoke Rises Above Beirut Skyline as Israeli Aerial Attacks Continue

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the Beirut skyline on Saturday.

The conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group has escalated in recent months.

Both sides have exchanged airstrikes and rocket fire across the border in the 12 months since the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year that sparked the war in Gaza.

Israel has ratcheted up the pressure on Hezbollah by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

More than a million Lebanese people have been displaced, and the death toll has risen sharply as airstrikes hit in and around Beirut.

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for Israeli citizens displaced from their homes near the Lebanon border to return.

Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

The health ministry in Beirut says the total toll over the past year is over 2,600 killed and 12,200 wounded.

Meanwhile Israel overnight attacked military targets in Iran with a series of pre-dawn airstrikes in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier in the month.