Fresh Israeli strikes target Beirut as nations ramp-up Lebanon evacuations

A Lebanese soldier was killed and four Red Cross volunteers were wounded in a rescue operation after they were targeted by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

The latest attack comes after an Israeli strike on an apartment in central Beirut late on Wednesday killed seven civil defence rescue workers in a rare attack in the heart of the Lebanese capital without prior warning.

"A soldier was killed and another was wounded as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village," the army said.

The Lebanese Red Cross said four of its volunteers were wounded on Thursday, while Hezbollah's civil defence unit said seven of its members were killed on Wednesday.

Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the strike in Beirut, and Lebanon's state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorous bombs.

Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

In a separate development, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after the 2006 war.

The warnings issued on Thursday signalled a possible broadening of Israel's invasion into southern Lebanon, which until now has been confined to areas close to the border.

At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it says is a "limited" ground invasion earlier this week.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes as Israel warned people to evacuate from around 50 villages and towns in the south, telling them to relocate to areas that are around 60 kilometres (36 miles) from the border and considerably farther north than a UN-declared buffer zone.

Foreign countries evacuate their nationals

Meanwhile, foreign governments have ramped up evacuation efforts to get their nationals out of Lebanon.

Britain said it would charter more flights to help citizens and dependents leave Lebanon.

More than 150 British nationals and their dependents were evacuated from the Lebanese capital on a UK government-chartered flight that arrived in Birmingham, central England, on Wednesday, its foreign ministry said.

"A limited number" of flights will depart from Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday, and "will continue for as long as the security situation allows", it added.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was ready to support "hundreds" more to leave Lebanon in the coming days.

With an estimated 23,000 French passport holders in Lebanon, France on Monday sent one of its three amphibious assault ships to the eastern Mediterranean, which it will take five to six days to reach from Toulon.

The carrier was loaded with helicopters as well as troops ready to be deployed should Paris decide to evacuate its nationals, a high-ranking officer told AFP. No evacuation order has been signalled, however.

"We are building our capacity to face a deterioration of the situation," the officer said. France has set up a 24-hour helpline to support people in Lebanon who hold French citizenship.

Meanwhile, Russian Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov said his country had started evacuating citizens from Lebanon and a special flight left Beirut on Thursday with the family members of Russian diplomats.

About 60 people will arrive in Russia from Lebanon on Thursday, his ministry said.

"The evacuation is carried out on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin," the ministry said.

Spain said it would "in principle" evacuate around 350 people out of Beirut using two military planes which should fly to Beirut on Thursday.

"The Spanish government never left any Spanish citizen, we did it in Afghanistan, we did it in Niger, we did it in Sudan and we will do it in Lebanon," Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Refugee agency said on Monday around 100,000 people had fled to Syria from Lebanon due to Israeli air strikes.

The UNHCR representative in Syria said most evacuees were women and children. Around 80 percent were Syrian nationals and 20 percent Lebanese.

Some 210,000 Palestinian refugees live in camps and informal settlements in Lebanon, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF.