Israel's airstrikes on Beirut escalate Hezbollah retaliation
The Israeli army bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut, launching one of the most powerful daylight attacks on the area controlled by Hezbollah.
The heart of the country was struck, with more than 20 people killed and dozens more injured, according to Lebanese media reports. Hezbollah retaliated by firing rockets at northern Israel.
Powerful explosions illuminated the sky over Beirut from the early hours of the morning, igniting fires. Columns of smoke were visible rising above the city.
The bombings occurred after the Israeli military had previously posted warnings to civilians on social media.
Later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had struck Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut, claiming to have dismantled most of the group's weapons and missile installations. Local residents reported numerous civilian casualties.
"This is our home; it belongs to my uncle. We’ve been living here for 10 years, and everyone in the house was a civilian. No one had a weapon, nor were they affiliated with any group. There were 10 people: six were killed, and four are still missing. Three of the victims were children. This is an assault on civilians. None of them were affiliated with any faction."
Israel maintains that it has taken measures to minimise harm to civilians and repeatedly accuses Hezbollah of deliberately infiltrating civilian areas to use residents as human shields, a charge that Hezbollah denies. Militants, who retaliated, struck northern Israel with drones.
Two people were killed in the city of Nahariya when a residential building was hit, according to Israeli police. Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for a drone attack, which the organization said targeted a military base east of Nahariya.
Israelis were forced to take shelter from drone attacks in the north, the military reported. One of the drones struck the yard of a kindergarten in a suburb of Haifa, where children were quickly taken to a shelter, emergency responders reported. No injuries were reported.
Israel and Hezbollah, supported by Iran, have engaged in firefights for over a year alongside the ongoing war in Gaza, but the fighting has escalated since the end of September. Israeli forces have intensified bombings in southern and eastern Lebanon and have conducted ground incursions into border villages. Over 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon in the past year, with the vast majority of casualties occurring in the last six weeks.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
