A powerful explosion lit up the night sky along Beirut's airport highway late Wednesday into early Thursday, as Israeli airstrikes hit the busy road amid intensifying clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.

A loud explosion is heard by an AFP journalist in the Lebanese capital Beirut shortly after midnight on Wednesday, as Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes and rocket fire.

The MV Rhosus was allowed to sail into Beirut’s port carrying 2,750 tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, even after an inspection by the Lebanese navy, documents show. Lebanon's Armed Forces failed to include the inspection in a report submitted to the government after the blast.

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It has also warned civilians to quit swathes of southern and eastern Lebanon - heartlands of the Lebanese armed Shi'ite Muslim group. They were the ‌widest evacuation orders ever given by Israel in Lebanon and ‌prompted a huge displacement of people before the bombardments that continued into Friday,

The Israeli Air Force has launched a new wave of 26 airstrikes in Beirut targeting Hezbollah facilities as part of its defense against the Iranian-backed group based in Lebanon. Israel’s strikes on its northern neighbor are part of its broader aerial offensive against what it has called the Iranian regime’s “terror network,