September 20,
2024
Lebanon’s health
ministry says at least eight people have been killed and 59 wounded in an
Israeli air attack on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Lebanon’s
National News Agency (NNA) reported that five children were among the
casualties from the attack on a building in Jamous Street, southern Beirut, on
Friday.
The agency said
that a F-35 jet hit the residential area with two attacks.
The Israeli
military said it has carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital,
claiming to have hit near key Hezbollah facilities in Dahiyeh.
“The [Israeli
military] conducted a targeted strike in Beirut. At this moment, there are no
changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” it said, providing no
further details.
Al Jazeera’s
Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Dahiyeh is considered a Hezbollah
stronghold.
“This is a major
escalation. We are getting reports this could be a targeted assassination,” she
said.
“It is not the
first time that Beirut’s southern suburb is targeted, but images emerging from
the scene show a building almost totally destroyed, so it is likely there will
be civilian casualties.”
Zein Basravi,
reporting from Amman because Al Jazeera is banned in Israel by the government,
said Israeli media have been reporting that a very senior official of Hezbollah
was the target of this attack.
“The Israeli
army has put out warnings to the Israeli people, saying everything is on the
table and to be prepared,” he said.
“There are now
renewed calls for people to stay near bomb shelters.”
Hezbollah fires
dozens of rockets
Earlier on
Friday, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets, a day after the
group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah promised to retaliate against Israel for a mass
bombing attack, the Israeli military and the Iran-backed group said.
Israel’s
military said the rockets came in three waves on Friday afternoon, targeting
sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
Tensions between
Israel and Hezbollah have soared following two days of sabotage attacks blamed
on Israel that set off explosives in thousands of communications devices,
killing at least 37 people and injuring nearly 3,000 people, including
civilians.
But Hezbollah
said the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli attacks on villages and homes
in southern Lebanon.
The group said
it launched “salvoes of Katyusha rockets” against at least six Israeli “army
headquarters” and bases, including a “main air defence base”.
“Some 140
rockets were fired from Lebanon within an hour starting at 1:02pm (10:02 GMT),”
an Israeli military spokesperson told the AFP news agency on Friday.
Israeli public
broadcaster Kan put the number of rockets at about 150.
No causalities
in Hezbollah attack: Army
The Israeli
military claimed the barrage of rockets caused no injuries and that rescue
services were working to put out fires sparked by falling debris.
It listed the
targeted areas as the occupied Golan Heights, the Upper Galilee region and the
town of Safed.
Videos from
northern Israel posted online showed rockets being intercepted by Israel’s Iron
Dome system, as sirens were heard in the background.
The military
said its air defences took down some of the rockets, while others fell in open
areas.
The incoming
fire came after the Israeli military said it struck dozens of rocket launchers
overnight that were ready for use against Israel.
For nearly a
year, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces
along the Lebanon-Israel border in support of Hamas. Tens of thousands of
people on both sides of the border have also been forced to flee their homes
due to the fighting.
Sami Nader,
director of the Levant Institute, said that Israel’s the raid on Beirut’s
southern district marks a “dangerous escalation” that takes the region closer
to an all-out war.
“[The situation
is] out of the rules of engagement that had been prevailing,” Nader told Al
Jazeera, referring to the cross-border raids between Israel and Lebanon
targeting military objectives.
“We’re not in a
tit-for-tat, we’re in an open war.”
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