Beirut

Steven Howard, the Director of Policy and Outreach at the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL), joins Thanos Davelis ahead of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' expected visit to Beirut look at the current situation on the ground in Lebanon, what to expect from the new US administration here, and how Greece and Cyprus can be helpful as we consider Lebanon's future. 

Lebanese state media reported two Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, about an hour after the Israeli military posted evacuation calls online for parts of the Hezbollah bastion.

"Israeli warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the Kafaat area," the official National News Agency said.

Lebanon is on the brink of destruction, enduring Israel's relentless attacks. In the past 24 hours, 138 airstrikes hit the south, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the district of Beqaa, bringing the total number of strikes to 10,150. Entire communities are reduced to rubble.

Israeli airstrikes targeted the Ras el-Nabaa neighborhood in central Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in at least 22 fatalities and 117 injuries, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, as reported by Al Jazeera. The strikes, which took place at midnight on Thursday without prior warning, hit two residential buildings. One of these buildings housed numerous displaced people.

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

Türkiye on Wednesday sent ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon, with its Beirut envoy saying it would be "the biggest" evacuation of its type from the war-torn country.

Lebanese national news agency ANI reported that there were Israeli bombings in and around a southern Beirut suburb, including four “very heavy” bombings, shortly after the Israeli army ordered civilians to evacuate immediately and hastily from several sectors of this stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah movement.

The nightmare they experienced in Beirut was described by Greeks, Lebanese residents, who arrived in Athens in an Air Force C-130 that traveled to Lebanon to rescue Greek and Cypriot civilians.

It is noted that the aircraft landed at the Elefsina airport.

Dozens of Greek and Cypriot nationals were being evacuated from Lebanon on Thursday as fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah intensified.

The Hellenic Air Force sent a military transport plane to Beirut at 11 a.m. to carry out the evacuation, with state broadcaster ERT reporting that some 60 civilians are set to leave the country so far. 

The Greek Foreign Ministry has announced a complete travel ban for Lebanon and urged Greek citizens currently in the country to leave immediately amid escalating violence in the region.

The announcement followed an Israeli airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut on Tuesday afternoon.