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At least 22 people were killed by a series of Israeli air strikes in the heart of Beirut, stoking fears that Israel’s pursuit of Hizbollah was extending deeper into the Lebanese capital.
The attack struck more than 5km from the southern suburbs that have been a focus of Israel’s intensifying offensive against the Lebanon-based militant movement. It was the second time that Israeli forces have hit central Beirut in less than two weeks.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati described the strike on Thursday evening as “totally unacceptable” as he renewed his calls for a ceasefire. At least 117 people were wounded in the attack, health authorities said.
Beirut was on edge on Friday as Israeli drones buzzed overhead and warplanes broke the sound barrier. The city is crammed with people fleeing the intense fighting that continues in south Lebanon.
One of Thursday’s strikes hit a residential building not far from Lebanon’s national museum in an area filled with small shops and apartment blocks. A family of eight, including three children, were killed in the bombing, said a relative who declined to be named. Israel did not say who it was targeting.
“We’re all from southern Lebanon, and were displaced here in recent weeks due to Israeli aggression,” the relative told the Financial Times. “I don’t understand why they targeted us. These are just families.”
Lebanese are increasingly fearful that Israel is widening the scope of its targets by striking areas such as those hit on Thursday that are not known for having a Hizbollah presence.
In the dilapidated Burj Abi Haidar neighbourhood, where the other Israeli strike hit, rescue workers were still recovering bodies on Friday, combing through the rubble of what residents said were at least three collapsed buildings.
“A lot of the families around here are poor and have nothing to do with anything,” said Abu Ahmad, who lives in a building near the attack site. His grandfather’s apartment was in one of the collapsed buildings.
The Israel Defense Forces did not issue any warning to residents ahead of Thursday night’s bombing.
Israel says it is fighting the Iran-backed militant group to stop it firing rockets into northern Israel, which has displaced 60,000 Israelis.
Hizbollah says its attacks on Israel are in support of Hamas, the Iran-linked militant group that controls Gaza and whose October 7 rampage in Israel triggered the war.
After nearly a year of fire across the border, Israel assassinated Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah last month. Its troops have since begun a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
Speaking after a situation assessment with Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency in southern Lebanon, the head of Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, pledged that the fighting would continue “until we ensure that we can safely return the residents”.
He said: “If anyone considers rebuilding these villages again, they will know that it’s not worth constructing terrorist infrastructure because the IDF will neutralise them again.”
Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli air strike that hit a building near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the country’s south, the Lebanese Army said on Friday.
While Lebanon’s army has not actively participated in the fighting between Israel’s military and Hizbollah, two other soldiers have been killed in the fighting since September.
The fighting is having a punishing effect on civilians. Lebanese authorities say 1.2mn people have been forced to flee their homes, and more than 2,000 have been killed, mostly in the past two weeks.
On Friday, The UN agency UNRWA said most Palestinian refugees living in camps in southern Lebanon or near Beirut have fled due to the bombardment, drawing parallels with the mass displacement in Gaza.
Two peacekeepers from the UN’s interim force in Lebanon were also injured on Friday following “explosions” near a watchtower in southern Lebanon, the force said, while its headquarters was rocked by explosions for the second time in 48 hours. The peacekeeping mission patrols the UN-drawn Blue Line between northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
Nadav Shoshani, international spokesman for the Israeli military, said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details” of the incident, and accused Hizbollah of using Unifil positions as “shields”.
Cartography by Steven Bernard
