Lebanon: three dead in an Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut, massive raids on “a key Hezbollah stronghold”

IDF standoff before a possible ceasefire or renewed violence? Beirut – in any case – saw a deluge of iron and fire hit it this Tuesday. The Israeli army announced Tuesday that it had struck “20 ​​terrorist targets” in the Beirut region, where it had earlier launched calls to evacuate in an equivalent number of areas in the southern suburbs of the city. “These strikes included 13 terrorist targets in the Dahieh area, a key Hezbollah stronghold,” the army said in an English-language statement. In a statement in Hebrew released just before, it said it had used eight of its planes which would have struck 20 targets “in Beirut” in the space of two minutes.

An Israeli strike targeted a building housing displaced people in the heart of Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least three people, while violent raids targeted the suburbs of the capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, according to official media. These strikes come as the Israeli security cabinet must decide in the afternoon on a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

The strike on Beirut targeted the densely populated neighborhood of Noueiri and “destroyed a four-story building housing displaced people” who had fled areas bombed by Israel, according to the National Information Agency (Ani, official). The Ministry of Health reported in a new report three deaths and 26 injured.

“A ring of fire envelops the suburbs”

On Saturday, a strike on a nearby neighborhood in Beirut, Basta, left 29 people dead. At the same time, consecutive strikes, the most violent since the start of the war between Hezbollah and Israel more than two months ago, target the southern suburbs of Beirut according to Ani. “A ring of fire envelops the suburb,” the agency said. A thick cloud of smoke covers the neighborhoods of the southern suburbs according to AFPTV images and the explosions resonate in the capital.

The Israeli army announced that eight of its planes had struck “20 ​​terrorist targets in Beirut”. She had recently called for the evacuation of around twenty areas in the southern suburbs, according to her, sheltering Hezbollah infrastructures.

In the south of the country, where the Israeli army launched a ground offensive on September 30, fighting was underway with Hezbollah. In the Litani River region, “the soldiers attacked several terrorist targets, engaged in close combat with terrorists, located and destroyed dozens of launchers, thousands of rockets and missiles, as well as weapons depots hidden in the side of the mountain,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

Hezbollah opened the southern Lebanese front against Israel in October 2023 following the outbreak of war in Gaza, to support its Palestinian ally, Hamas. In September, clashes turned into open war, with Israel launching a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon and killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several senior officials.

According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, at least 3,799 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most since violence intensified last September.