An Israeli strike on an office building in the southern city of Sidon killed five people and wounded seven, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel launched a new wave of air strikes on Lebanon's south, east, and in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Speaking to foreign ambassadors, the Lebanese premier said "the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented".
More than 95,000 people are displaced to official shelters, per the government's latest count.
"Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose," Salam said.
"Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them," he added.
Before the current escalation, Israeli strikes had killed more than 300 people in Lebanon since the November 2024 ceasefire, according to figures reported by Lebanese authorities in the weeks leading up to the war.
Despite abiding by the ceasefire since it came into effect, Hezbollah decided to respond to hundreds of Israeli violations and the US-Israeli war on its key ally Tehran by launching missiles toward Israel on Monday.
Israel has since used the attack as a pretext to expand its massacres across Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry said late Thursday night that Israeli strikes since Monday had killed 123 people.
Rubble and dust
In Sidon, the largest city in southern Lebanon, an Israeli strike targeted a building on a main, crowded street, according to the National News Agency.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw extensive damage in the targeted apartment and shattered glass on the street, which is flanked by two public schools that have turned into shelters for displaced people.
Rescue workers meanwhile recovered a body from under the rubble and collected body parts scattered around the area.
The Israeli military announced Friday that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the past four days.
Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighbourhood Friday, while the apartment buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed.
The streets were completely deserted by Friday morning, with no movement except for a bulldozer working to remove debris.
After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area, whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000.
Mohammad, 39, a resident of the southern suburbs, fled with his family when the bombing began on Monday.
Returning on Thursday to check on his home and collect belongings just minutes before the Israeli evacuation warning was issued, he said he "went down and found total chaos".
Dozens of strikes on south
Israel has also ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of southern Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south.
NNA reported strikes on dozens of villages in south and east Lebanon.
It came as the Israeli army chief on Thursday said he ordered forces occupying territory in southern Lebanon to expand their control inside south Lebanon.
Hezbollah, for its part, has deployed elite fighters to southern Lebanon to confront advancing Israeli occupation troops, according to Lebanese sources cited by Reuters.
Sources familiar with the deployments said the fighters had been ordered to join the battle in several areas where Israeli occupation forces were reportedly pushed forward on Wednesday, including the town of Khiyam.
On Friday, Hezbollah claimed new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa.
It also announced 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".
The Lebanese resistance movement has warned residents of settlements in northern Israel near the Lebanon border to immediately evacuate areas within 5 kilometres of the frontier.
In a statement released through its media channels and disseminated in Hebrew on Friday morning, Hezbollah said: “The aggression of your army against Lebanese sovereignty and civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the campaign of displacement it is carrying out will not go unanswered. Head south.”
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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