Suffocating cars leave Beirut’s southern suburbs as hundreds of families rush to leave the area pounded by Israeli warplanes in recent hours.

New airstrikes took place today, hours after heavy strikes on Friday targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters, the Israeli military said.

In Martyrs’ Square, in the center of the Lebanese capital, many residents looked bewildered. “We were at home when the evacuation warning was issued. We took our IDs, our belongings and went out,” Radwan Messalam, a refugee from Syria, told AFP. This father of six children, aged 3-17, says he has “nowhere to go” since he cannot return to his home country.

Shortly before midnight, the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) announced that it would bomb three Hezbollah weapons caches hidden in the basements of buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut. For its part, Hezbollah has denied that it stores weapons in residential complexes.

Col. Avihai Andrai, the Israeli army’s spokesman for the Arabic-speaking public, posted on the X platform (formerly Twitter) a map showing the location of the three buildings that were targeted, urging residents within a 500-meter radius to evacuate the area. A few hours later, powerful explosions rocked the district.

Israeli warplanes also hit Hezbollah positions in the Tire area.

The Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) announced that the commander of Hezbollah’s rocket-launching unit in southern Lebanon, Mohammed Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hossein Ahmed Ismail, were killed in one of the strikes in the previous hours.

On Friday afternoon, Israel launched one of the heaviest waves of airstrikes in Beirut in years, killing at least six people and injuring 91 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Seven buildings collapsed as a result of the Israeli attack, according to Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV. For their part, the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) reported a “precision strike” on Hezbollah’s headquarters. Israeli media reported that the target of the Israeli attack was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. However, a source from the Lebanese movement assured that Hassan Nasrallah is safe.