BEIRUT (AP) — Israel carried out a rare strike Tuesday on Beirut that killed at least one person and wounded others, raising the stakes in the escalating tensions with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted the militant commander allegedly behind the deaths of 12 children and teens in a weekend rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, as well as the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians hit in other strikes.
Israel has blamed the rocket attack Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has denied any role. “Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday’s strike.
The two sides have been exchanging near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but had previously kept the conflict at a low level that would not escalate into full-on war.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Tuesday’s strike, carried out with a drone that launched three rockets, killed one woman and wounded several other people, some of them seriously. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called on people to donate blood.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said 17 wounded were taken to the private Bahman Hospital, while 14 were taken to Hezbollah’s Rasoul Aazam hospital.
It was not immediately clear if the intended target of the strike had been killed or injured.
“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. “The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security advisor and other officials.
A Hezbollah official and the group’s TV station said that the Israeli airstrike hit Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut on Tuesday evening, causing damage.
The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik – a crowded urban neighborhood full of small shops and apartment buildings – damaged several buildings but it was not immediately clear if any Hezbollah official was hit, the Hezbollah official said.
A Lebanese military intelligence official said they have no information when asked by The Associated Press whether a senior Hezbollah security official had escaped the airstrike.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.
A forklift was in the middle of the street, reaching to the top floors of the destroyed building, while utility crews removed fallen power lines. Crowds gathered to inspect the damages and check on their families. Some of them chanted in support of Hezbollah.
Paramedics could be seen carrying several injured people out of the damaged buildings. It was not immediately clear if anyone had been killed.
A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 meters (yards) away said that dust from the explosion “covered everything,” and that the glass in his son’s apartment was broken.
“Then people went down on the streets,” he said. “Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction.” He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns about his security at a tense moment.
The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January, when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri. That strike was the first time Israel had hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
Israel had been expected to retaliate for the Majdal Shams strike, but diplomats had said in recent days that they expected the response to stay within the boundaries of the ongoing low-level conflict between Hezbollah and Israel without provoking all-out war.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Hussein Malla and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed reporting.
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