Israeli airstrikes rock southern suburbs of Beirut and cut off a key crossing into Syria

Israel has carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It had warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon that are outside a United Nations-declared buffer zone. The blasts overnight rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shaking buildings kilometers away. On Friday morning, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli airstrike cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria. Also, Israeli forces carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.