The Israeli military says it struck the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut. The series of explosions Friday evening is the most powerful yet seen in the Lebanese capital the past year.

Israeli army spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said it targeted the main Hezbollah headquarters, located beneath residential buildings. Attacks on Hezbollah targets by fighter jets continued into the early hours Saturday after the army said it told residents to evacuate three buildings it was targeting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly cut short a visit to the United States and was returning home instead of waiting until the end of Sabbath on Saturday evening, his office said. Hours earlier, Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.

More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders.

Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.

The International Organization for Migration estimated Thursday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

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Here’s the latest:

20 health care centers shut down amid escalating violence in Lebanon, UN says

BEIRUT — The United Nations said the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah has forced at least 20 primary health care centers to shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon.

The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in the latest escalation that began earlier in the week, Israeli airstrikes impacted 25 water facilities, affecting access to clean water for nearly 300,000 in high-risk areas.

The escalation since Sept. 23 has also more than doubled the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon. There are now over 211,000 people displaced, some 85,000 of them now living in public schools and other shelters spread around the country’s north and east.

A new phase of escalation began Friday, when Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leader in the southern suburb of Beirut, in one of the largest blasts to hit the Lebanese capital in years. The fate of the group’s leader is still unknown. After the initial strike early Friday evening, Israeli warplanes continued to pound buildings and targets in the southern suburb for over six hours. Smoke and balls of fire covered the Beirut skyline for hours.

Israel targets areas around Beirut early Saturday

BEIRUT — Israel’s military carried out new strikes early Saturday targeting areas around Beirut.

In a short statement, the Israeli military described the sites it hit as belonging to Hezbollah.

Explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, with flames lighting up the pre-dawn darkness. Authorities there did not immediately acknowledge if there were any casualties.

Israel says it killed a Hezbollah missile unit commander and his deputy

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah missile unit commander and his deputy during a strike in southern Lebanon earlier in the week.

Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its air forces killed Muhammad Ali Ismail, who it said was responsible for directing “numerous terror attacks” against Israel, including the firing of rockets towards Israeli territory.

The Tuesday strike also killed the commander’s deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, it said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

Moody’s lowers Israel’s credit rating due to economic risks from conflict

NEW YORK — Moody’s lowered its credit rating on Israel on Friday, warning that the country’s deepening conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon pose increased risks for its economy.

The downgrade to Baa1 could make it more expensive for Israel to borrow on international markets because lenders could demand higher interest rates on loans to compensate for the greater risk.

“The key driver for the downgrade is our view that geopolitical risk has intensified significantly further, to very high levels, with material negative consequences for Israel’s creditworthiness in both the near and longer term,” Moody’s wrote. Moody’s last dropped its rating on Israel’s debt in February, from A1 to A2. Israel’s new rating remains investment grade at three notches above what’s considered “junk” status on Moody’s scale.

Series of airstrikes hit several locations in Beirut’s southern suburbs

BEIRUT — A series of airstrikes have hit several locations in the southern suburbs of Beirut, causing several smaller explosions and rings of smoke intersecting over the skies of the Lebanese capital.

Fire raged from at least one location, and smoke and flames were seen from above Beirut early Saturday. Residents reported jets flying overhead.

Following a massive air raid that levelled several buildings in the southern suburb of Beirut, which Israel said targeted the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, there were nearly a dozen other strikes in the same neighborhood, some just an hour after an Israeli warning for residents to evacuate. Hundreds of Lebanese fled the area.

Israel fighter jets strike dozens of Hezbollah launchers aimed toward Israeli civilians, as air raid sirens go off in northern Israel

JERUSALEM — Israel’s army said in a statement that its fighter jets struck dozens of Hezbollah launchers that were aimed toward Israeli civilians over the past hour. The army said it continues to strike Hezbollah targets and buildings in which weapons were stored in several areas in southern Lebanon.

Israel reports more air raid sirens in northern Israel, including in Safed. Israeli officials said a 68-year-old woman suffered mild shrapnel wounds from the rocket strike earlier in Safed.

Canada global affairs blocks seats on few remaining commercial flights leaving Lebanon, urging Canadians to leave immediately

OTTAWA, Ontario — Global Affairs Canada began booking blocks of seats on the few remaining commercial flights leaving Lebanon on Friday as it issued another urgent plea for any Canadians in the country to leave immediately.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has secured seats for Canadians on the limited commercial flights available. Passengers will pay for the flights themselves, but Joly says loans are available for those who need financial assistance.

Joly and Defense Minister Bill Blair have been asking Canadians in Lebanon to leave for months as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalates. Joly says it’s believed about 45,000 Canadians were in Lebanon, even though only about half that number have registered officially with the embassy in Beirut.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll from airstrike targeting Hezbollah in Beirut

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six were killed and 91 wounded in several Israeli strikes that struck Friday.

The toll is likely to rise significantly as teams are still combing through the rubble of six buildings.

Israel’s military says it is conducting airstrikes in Beirut area where it had warned residents to evacuate

BEIRUT — Israel’s air force struck southern suburbs of Beirut early Saturday hours after another airstrike destroyed several buildings killing and wounding dozens of people.

The new airstrikes came shortly after an Israeli military spokesperson warned the residents of several building to evacuate them saying they were being used by the militant Hezbollah group.

Israel’s military confirmed that the air forces are striking areas south of Beirut.

Israel’s army warns residents in southern Beirut neighborhoods to evacuate from buildings it plans to strike

The Israeli army warned residents in southern Beirut neighborhoods late Friday to evacuate from three buildings it says Hezbollah uses to hide weapons, including anti-ship missiles.

Israeli army spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said residents should evacuate “as soon as possible” because Israel is about to strike them and that the buildings could collapse from secondary explosions.

“In the last hour, we have contacted the residents of the three buildings in the Dahiyeh—these residents are above and near Hezbollah’s strategic assets and must evacuate immediately for their safety and security,” he said.

Hagari said Israel will not allow the civilian airport to be used for military purposes and that pilots are patrolling the skies over the airport for weapons smuggling.

President Biden says US has ‘no knowledge of or participation in’ Israeli military strikes in Beirut

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States had “no knowledge of or participation in” Israeli military strikes in Beirut.

“We’re gathering more information. I’ll have more to say when we have more information,” Biden said after he arrived in his home state of Delaware for the weekend.

Asked about his support for Israel’s right to self-defense and whether he supported the strikes in Beirut, Biden said he needed more information.

“I don’t know enough to answer that question,” he said.

Hezbollah launches rockets at Israeli city of Safed

BEIRUT — Hezbollah said in a statement some four hours after the strike in Beirut that it had launched a salvo of rockets at the Israeli city of Safed, which it said was “in defense of Lebanon and its people, and in response to the barbaric Israeli violation of cities, villages and civilians.”

They also released a statement saying they hit Karmiel and Sa’ar.

The Israeli military says a house and car in Safed were hit, but gave no further details. Rescuers were headed to the scene.

Late Friday, air raid sirens sounded in several locations across northern Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

UK advises British nationals in Lebanon to leave

BEIRUT — The UK, which has been advising its nationals to leave Lebanon for more than a month, took a more urgent tone in a statement issued Friday after a major Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“British nationals in Lebanon should leave now,” the statement said. “You should take the next available flight.”

It added, “We’re working to increase capacity and secure seats for British nationals to leave.”

A day earlier, British Defense Secretary John Healey said his country had sent 700 troops to Cyprus to assist in a potential emergency evacuation of civilians in Lebanon should a full war break out.

Analyst says strike is likely to spark a major escalation

BEIRUT — Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst who frequently speaks with Hezbollah members said that the group’s silence on the fate of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, since the strike in Beirut is likely an “indication either that they want him to be in a safe place and they are moving him or he is dead and they want to wait until they find his body,” as is the group’s normal practice.

In either case, he said the strike is likely to spark a major escalation.

“For the first time in this war Israel is giving legitimacy to Hezbollah to start bombing residential areas in Tel Aviv,” he said. Whether Nasrallah was “assassinated or not, we are starting a new phase of this war that’s going to be a very long war.”

At least 2 people were killed and dozens were wounded in Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry says

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least two people were killed and at least 76 others were wounded in the strikes in a first casualty count, as first-responders are still searching for others under the rubble. At least 60 of the injured suffered from light wounds while 15 were admitted to the hospital, according to the ministry’s statement .

Mazen Alameh, manager of the Sahel Hospital near the scene of the strike, said they have so far received 13 wounded, of whom 10 were in critical condition. One of the critically injured people was a child, he said.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister slams Israel for the Beirut strikes

BEIRUT — Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati slammed Israel for the strikes in Beirut amid global efforts for a ceasefire, saying that this proves “that the Israeli enemy does not care about all international efforts and calls for a cease-fire.”

US administration gathering information on the strike

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE — White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said the administration was still gathering information on Friday’s strike. He added that U.S. officials were not given pre-notification from Israelis about the strike.

President Joe Biden was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Friday to deliver the eulogy at the funeral of a childhood friend. His national security team briefed him on the Beirut strike after he delivered the eulogy, according to the White House.

Pentagon says US got no advance warning of the strike by Israel in Beirut

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Friday that the U.S. got no advance warning of the strike.

Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was on the phone with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as it was occurring. She declined to say whether Gallant informed Austin about the strike or who it targeted during the call.

Asked if the U.S. considers the strike an escalation in the conflict, Singh said the U.S. is still assessing it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cuts US visit short to return home

NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the Israeli leader is cutting short a visit to the U.S. and returning home.

The office made the announcement shortly after a massive Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut.

Netanyahu, in New York to address the United Nations, had been scheduled to stay in the U.S. until Saturday night, after the end of the Jewish sabbath.

Israeli politicians do not normally travel on the sabbath except for matters of great import.

6 buildings are leveled to the ground by strikes as hospitals receive casualties

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said six buildings were “leveled to the ground” by the strikes.

Hospitals in the area were receiving casualties, but the scale was not immediately clear. Officials at Sahel hospital near the scene of the strike said they had received 10 wounded, three of them critically, including a Syrian child.

The strikes which came around nightfall were by far the most intense in Beirut in the past year since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire. Local TV stations showed emergency workers running through the rubble of destroyed buildings, struggling to put out a fire. The missiles appeared to have caused massive craters.

Many people who live in the vicinity were seen gathering belongings and fleeing along the road leading to Beirut’s airport.

First responders and Lebanese Red Cross struggling to reach the area because of the rubble and destruction.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene said the demolished structures appeared to be multistory apartment buildings.

Israel’s 3 main TV channels say the massive strikes in Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah

JERUSALEM — Israel’s three main TV channels all flashed headlines that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike. But the unsourced reports could not immediately be confirmed.

The Israeli army had no comment on the reports that Nasrallah was the target. But given the size and timing of the blast, there were strong indications that a high-value target was inside the building at the time.

Lebanese Red Cross scenes arrive to scene of the strikes, as more explosions heard in the area

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said 10 teams from the Lebanese Red Cross arrived to the scene of the strike. There was no immediate count of casualties from the organization.

One hour after the first strike, more explosions were heard in the area.

Civil defense teams worked to put out fires that broke out at the scene of the explosion.

Israeli military carries out ‘precise strike’ on Hezbollah headquarters

Israel’s military said it carried out a “precise strike” on Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Beirut on Friday.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced the strike in a televised address.

Hagari said the headquarters “served as an epicenter of Hezbollah’s terror” and was “intentionally built under residential buildings” as part of the group’s “strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.”

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the airstrikes on the Haret Hreik district destroyed four buildings, turning them into a pile of rubble. The station said more than 15 missiles struck the area at the same moment.

The attack sent huge clouds of orange and black smoke billowing into the skies.

Strong explosi

ons in populated Beirut suburb

BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s heavily-populated southern suburb as the blasts were heard throughout the Lebanese capital.

It was not immediately clear what the target was but thick black smoke was seen billowing from the area.

The massive explosion was so powerful it rattled windows and shook houses some 30 kilometers north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen headed to the scene of the explosions, sirens wailing.

The strike came an hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.

Rescuers pull out bodies under collapsed building in Lebanon

In the city of Tyre, Lebanese civil defense workers toiled to pull out two bodies from under the rubble of a collapsed building after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike Friday.

They pulled the dead bodies of 35-year-old Hiba Ataya and her mother, 65-year-old Sabah Olayan.

“There she is, this is Sabah,” one man is heard saying as workers removed slabs of concrete and stones to reveal a body.

Ali Safieddine, a civil defense rescuer, told The Associated Press that his organization was receiving nonstop calls to go rescue people but they’re unable to reach all the areas due to airstrikes and bombed out roads.

He also said the team had to evacuate their center after receiving a call from Israel instructing them to vacate the location. “But we are continuing our work, we will continue our mission from wherever we are even if we’re in the street,” he said.

Humanitarian crisis worsens amid escalation between Israel and Hezbollah

The Norwegian Refugee Council aid group is warning that the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hezbollah is reaching deeper into Lebanon and pushing the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon to alarming levels.

“Some Lebanese villages have almost been entirely deserted amid large-scale destruction. Families do not know which way to turn as Israel bombards scores of towns for the first time,” Maureen Philippon, the group’s country director in Lebanon.

In a statement, she said tens of thousands of people are now seeking shelter in ill-equipped primarily schools where two or three families are packed together in the same classroom and there are no showers or bathing areas.

“People now being turned away from shelters as there is simply no space for them inside,” she said, while some displaced families are forced to seek refuge in bus shelters, in their cars, and outside hospitals, unsure where to go next, Philippon said.

Israel’s goals in Lebanon are much narrower compared to Gaza, official says

TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli security official said he expects a possible war against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza because the Israeli military’s goals are much narrower.

The official said Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas’ military and political regime in Gaza, but the goal in Lebanon is just to push Hezbollah away from the border with Israel. That is “not a high bar like Gaza” in terms of operational objectives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing guidelines.

The official said that no decision has been made on whether Israel will carry out a ground operation in southern Lebanon. But he stressed that the military is training for this possibility every day and is ready to implement it.

He added that Israel still sees Resolution 1701, the United Nations-brokered resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, as the best solution for lasting stability. But that the resolution must be enforced by an international force that is able to keep Hezbollah from setting up infrastructure close to the border with Israel. He said Israel’s punishing aerial bombardments this week, which killed more than 600 people in Lebanon, represent Israel’s decision to start enforcing the resolution on their own.

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Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.

Israeli strike hits a tent within Gaza hospital complex, killing 1 and injuring 4

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a tent sheltering displaced people within a hospital complex in central Gaza early Friday, killing one Palestinian man and injuring four others.

The strike on Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah left some tents and tarps torn apart with items such as bottles, mattresses, and a baby chair scattered on the dusty ground.

An Israeli military spokesperson told The Associated Press it conducted a “precise strike on Islamic Jihad terrorists who were operating inside command and control centers embedded within the Humanitarian Area in Deir al Balah.”

The spokesperson said that steps were take to “mitigate the risk of harm to civilians.” The military did not comment on whether militants had been killed in the strike.

A video filmed by The Associated Press shows several children surrounding metal parts of the guided missile labeled “manufacturer United States Army” in the vicinity of the hospital where hundreds of displaced people are sheltering.

Lebanon says 25 killed by Israeli strikes on Friday

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters that 25 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since midnight in different parts of the country.

The latest numbers on Friday put the total death toll over the past five days to about 700, including scores of women and children, as Israel dramatically escalated strikes targeting the military capacity of Hezbollah.

Houthi rebels claim missile attack targeting Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed a missile attack that targeted Israel early Friday morning.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, claimed the attack in a pre-recorded statement released by the Houthis. He claimed the rebels launched both a missile and drone. The missile targeted Tel Aviv while the drone targeted another city, though Israel did not acknowledge the drone. No injuries were reported.

Israel’s military said earlier Friday it used an Arrow interceptor missile to down the Houthi missile, which saw some shrapnel fall.

It’s the second attack by the Houthis to target Tel Aviv in recent weeks. Friday’s launch comes amid Israel’s intensified airstrike campaign targeting Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Both Hezbollah and the Houthis are backed by Iran.

UN: More than 30,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria in 3 days

GENEVA — The U.N. refugee agency says “well over 30,000” people have crossed from Lebanon into neighboring Syria over the last 72 hours in the wake of fighting between the militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces in Lebanon.

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the representative for refugee agency UNHCR in Syria, said roughly half of the people who have fled were children and adolescents.

He said about 80% were Syrians returning to their home country and the rest were Lebanese.

“Now these, of course, are people who are fleeing bombs and who are crossing into a country that has been suffering from its own crisis and violence for 13 years now,” he told reporters in Geneva by video from the Lebanon-Syria border. Syria is facing “economic collapse,” he said.

“I think that this just illustrates the kind of extremely difficult choices both Syrians and Lebanese are having to make,” he said.

Israeli strike kills a family of 9 in a Lebanese border town, authorities say

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a border village has killed nine members of the same family, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday.

NNA said nine people were killed in the early Friday airstrike on the village of Chebaa that destroyed their three-story building.

Chebaa is in an area where the borders of Syria, Israel and Lebanon meet, and was struck several times in recent months.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck towns and villages in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, according to NNA.

Israeli military reports more strikes from Lebanon

JERUSALEM — Incoming fire from Lebanon into Israel continued Friday, with one man suffering wounds from shrapnel.

The Israeli military said four drones came across the border Friday, all of which were intercepted. Earlier Friday, the Israeli military said another 10 projectiles came into Israel from Lebanon, with some intercepted and others falling into open fields. It said it later targeted launchers in Lebanon behind the missile attacks.

Hezbollah claimed it had targeted the Israeli city of Tiberias with missiles.

The Israeli military said its warplanes had struck launchers in Haddatha, Lebanon, that it said fired the rockets at Tiberius in northern Israel. It said it was “currently continuing to strike Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon.”

Israeli strike in Syria kills 5 soldiers

DAMASCUS — An overnight Israeli airstrike on a military site in the area of Kfar Yabous in Syria near the border with Lebanon killed five Syrian army soldiers and injured another, Syrian state news agency SANA reported Friday, citing an unidentified military official.

Israel’s military did not immediately acknowledge the strike. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria and facilities linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah but rarely acknowledges them.

Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas — a Hezbollah ally — in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled across the border from Lebanon into Syria since the beginning of the week under intense Israeli bombardment that Israel says is targeting Hezbollah militants and weapons. The week’s strikes have killed an estimated 700 people, including at least 150 women and children.

Trade unions file claim at United Nations for Palestinian workers

GENEVA — A group of international trade unions on Friday filed a complaint against Israel at the United Nations labor organization in a bid to win compensation for 200,000 Palestinians who have gone unpaid or seen their benefits withheld after the Oct. 7 attacks.

The nine unions say the workers from both Gaza and the West Bank had been employed in Israel before the deadly attacks by armed militants, but were barred from entering to go to their jobs afterward. As a result, the workers and their families have faced millions of dollars’ worth of lost income, financial insecurity and no access to remedies through the courts, they said.

“These workers have experienced widespread wage theft due to the suspension of work permits and the unilateral termination of their contracts,” said a joint statement from the unions, whose members are active in industries as diverse as construction, education, journalism, agriculture, hospitality and transportation.

The filing at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, of which Israel is a member country, is based on language in its constitution that seeks to ensure that countries uphold international commitments they have already made.

Such economic woes that many Palestinians have faced come on top of the bloodshed, displacement and other troubles faced by Gaza and the West Bank as Israel continues its campaign against armed Palestinian militants.

The Philippines is preparing to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Lebanon

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government is bracing to evacuate thousands of Filipino workers in Lebanon in case the deadly conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group further escalates, Philippine officials said Friday.

More than 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, often as house cleaners. Philippine officials have not yet ordered a mandatory evacuation of its citizens because it was not yet clear whether a full-scale war would erupt, including an Israeli ground attack.

Many Filipinos were adamant not to leave their jobs in Lebanon and return to uncertainties at home, but they have been told to be ready to evacuate any time, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told a news briefing in Manila.

They say “it’s better for them to die in war than to die of hunger,” De Vega said. But he added without elaborating that the Philippine government prepared a contingency plan for a massive evacuation if widespread ground fighting erupts across Lebanon.

Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat told reporters in Manila via video on Friday that many Filipinos there “will only decide to leave when the situation is so bad, when the war is at their doorsteps.”