Volkswacht Bodensee - Extensive destruction in Beirut's southern suburbs following Israeli strikes

The attacks came after the Israeli military issued an unprecedented evacuation warning for the area, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people.

Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighbourhood, while the apartment buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed.

The Lebanese health ministry said late on Thursday night that strikes since Monday had killed 123 people.

The streets were completely deserted by Friday morning, with no movement except for a bulldozer working to remove debris.

On another street, smoke was rising from what was left of a building that had been levelled, while the surrounding buildings had suffered severe damage.

The official National News Agency reported a series of Israeli air strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, during the night, targeting several neighbourhoods.

The Israeli military announced that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on the area since Lebanon was dragged into the war four days ago, including Thursday night's raids against "command centres and multi-storey structures in which were terror sites".

It said that on Thursday night its forces struck "an executive council's command centre and a facility storing UAVs (drones) utilised by Hezbollah for conducting attacks against the State of Israel".

After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area -- which is a Hezbollah stronghold and whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000.

- Dozens of strikes on south -

The war in the Middle East spread to Lebanon when the Iran-backed Hezbollah launched a rocket attack at Israel early Monday, which it said was to "avenge" the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli attack on Tehran on Saturday.

That prompted a swift retaliation from Israel, which has continued to bomb Lebanon since and has also ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of southern Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes did not stop during the night.

The National News Agency reported strikes on dozens of villages in south and east Lebanon, coinciding with the Israeli army chief of staff announcing on Thursday evening that Israeli forces deployed in southern Lebanon have been ordered to expand their control inside south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed on Friday new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa.

Hezbollah also announced at dawn on Friday that it had targeted a cluster of Israeli vehicles advancing toward the town of Khiam, about six kilometres from the border, and "forced them to retreat".

K.Hofmann--VB