Israeli strikes damage hospital in Lebanon’s Tyre

A hospital in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre has been damaged by Israeli air strikes on nearby buildings that injured 11 people, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the state-run National News Agency (NNA) on Saturday that the facility would “remain open to provide the necessary medical care” despite the damage.

Overnight strikes destroyed two buildings near the hospital, according to the AFP news agency.

They also shattered windows in the hospital and caused suspended ceilings to collapse, the facility’s management said.

A series of attacks hit the Tyre region, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, an AFP correspondent said.

At least one person was killed in this attack, the NNA reported.

In another incident, an Israeli drone strike killed at least two people when a motorbike was targeted on the northern outskirts of Tyre, the NNA said.

Later on Saturday, the Israeli military issued a forced displacement order to residents of Tyre, saying it planned further strikes on Hezbollah targets.

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre in recent weeks, but about 20,000 remained, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages.

Israel has issued displacement orders for most of the city and a broad swath of southern Lebanon.

The NNA also reported that Israeli forces abducted a man in the Lebanese town of Shebaa near the Israeli border in the southeast.

Ground invasion Meanwhile, Israel continued to press forward with a ground invasion.

Israeli forces blew up houses in several southern front-line villages and towns, including Aita al-Shaab and Ramyah, and bombed bridges linking Samar with Mashghara, claiming they were being used by Hezbollah.

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The bombing of bridges and other civilian infrastructure across southern Lebanon has been widely condemned. Rights groups have warned that Israel appears to be trying to isolate the region.

Al Jazeera Arabic also reported that Israeli forces carried out an air attack on the town of al-Qatrani in the Jezzine district of southern Lebanon and Israeli air attacks hit the towns of Yohmar and Sahmar in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Despite this continued offensive, Heiko Wimmen, a project director for Lebanon, Iraq and Syria at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Israel is unlikely to achieve its stated goal of disarming Hezbollah.

“We know that [disarming] Hezbollah is not on the cards, and so we’re seeing an open-ended occupation evolving before our eyes,” he said.