Israel carried out a rare attack on Beirut on Tuesday, saying it killed a Hezbollah commander allegedly behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young men in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. At least three others were killed.
Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the commander’s death. The Israeli attack killed a woman and two children and wounded dozens of others in an escalating conflict with the Lebanese militant group.
An Israeli official said the target was Fouad Shukur, a top Hezbollah military commander whom the United States accuses of planning and launching the deadly 1983 Marine bombing of the Lebanese capital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the attack with the media. Shukur is also suspected of other attacks that killed Israeli civilians.
Although Hezbollah has denied involvement in Saturday’s rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams, Israel has blamed the terror group for it. “Hezbollah has crossed the red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant wrote on Platform X shortly after Tuesday’s attack.
The two sides have been trading almost daily attacks over the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level, making it unlikely to escalate into a full-blown war.
Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry said 74 people were injured in the attack in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, some of them in critical condition. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital, located near the explosion site, has called for blood donations.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported the attack was carried out by a drone that fired three rockets.
“The Israeli enemy has committed a huge, stupid act in terms of size, timing and circumstances by targeting a completely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told al-Manar TV. “The Israeli enemy will pay the price sooner or later.”
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it took place just metres from one of the capital’s largest hospitals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not issue an immediate statement, but sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security adviser and other officials minutes after the attack.
An airstrike on Haret Hreik, a southern suburb of Beirut, damaged several buildings. Hreik is a crowded urban area where Hezbollah has political and security operations, but the area is also dotted with small shops and apartment buildings.
A Hezbollah official said it was not immediately clear whether any Hezbollah officers were killed. When The Associated Press asked a Lebanese military intelligence official if any senior Hezbollah security officials survived the airstrike, he said he had no information.
Both the officers said this on the condition of anonymity as per the rules.
The attack hit an apartment building near a hospital, causing half of the targeted building to collapse and heavy damage to a building next to it. The hospital suffered minor damage, while surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.
A forklift stood in the middle of the street, reaching the upper floors of the destroyed building, while electricity department workers worked to remove downed power poles. Crowds gathered to survey the damage and visit their families. Some of them chanted slogans in support of Hezbollah.
Paramedics could be seen pulling several injured people out of damaged buildings.
A suburban resident whose home is about 200 metres away said dust from the explosion “covered everything” and shattered the glass in his son’s apartment.
“Then people came out on the streets,” he said. “Everyone has their family. They went to check on them. There was a lot of devastation.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety during this tense time.
Hassan Noureddin said he was riding his motorcycle near the building when he heard two explosions. “It sounded like it was a drone attack, not a jet attack,” Noureddin told the AP near the site of the attack.
Despite rising tensions in recent days and fears of a strike, Noureddin said he and others he knows in the area are not panicking and remain upbeat.
Talal Hatoum, a local official with the Shiite Amal Movement, Hezbollah’s main political ally in Lebanon, said Tuesday’s attack marked a change in the rules of the conflict because it caused so many civilian casualties.
The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January, when an airstrike killed Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas official. It was Israel’s first attack on Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
Israel was expected to respond to the attack in Majdal Shams, but diplomats said in recent days that they hoped the response would stay within the boundaries of the ongoing low-level conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and not spark a full-blown war.
Many of them did not expect Israel to attack Beirut, which could give Hezbollah an opportunity to attack a major Israeli population center.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement that she was “deeply concerned” by the attack and called for “maintenance of calm.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris said Israel “has a right to defend itself against a terrorist organization,” referring to Hezbollah, but added: “We must still work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work.”