Thousands flee Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

Thousands of Lebanese people fled the continued bombing in the country's south yesterday as Israel said it was conducting "extensive strikes" on Hezbollah targets, including on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

- Jason Burke, William Christou

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to maintain the offensive against Hezbollah and said the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was leading Lebanon "to the edge of the abyss" while world leaders meeting at the United Nations general assembly in New York called for the de-escalation of the conflict, which has claimed hundreds of lives this week.

"I say to the people of Lebanon: Our war is not with you. Our war is with Hezbollah," Netanyahu said yesterday afternoon at an Israeli military intelligence base. "I told you yesterday to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. Whoever [does not] will no longer have a home."

The new strike in Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold in the Lebanese capital, was typical of those that have targeted leaders of the group over recent months. A missile hit the top floor of an apartment building in the Ghobeiry neighbourhood, with images of the strike showing a collapsed roof with a large smoke cloud billowing from it.

Videos posted on social media showed crowds of people gathered in a rubble-filled street and badly burned human remains.

"This is the aggression of Israel," a man screamed in the video. "This is Israel! Don't you see what they are doing to us? Despite all of this, we will wipe them from the earth."