Key points
- Israel resumed attacks in central Beirut, killing at least 22 people in an area not previously targeted.
- Two UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired into a guard tower at the force’s main headquarters.
- The attack on Ras al-Naqoura was condemned by UNIFIL and the White House, who are now pressing Israel for details.
At least 22 people were killed in Israeli attacks in a densely populated area of central Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, with a security source saying the target was a Hezbollah figure.
Israel has repeatedly struck Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, over the past two weeks, but Thursday’s raid was only the third time the city center has been targeted.
“The Israeli enemy’s attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Lebanese security source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told the AFP news agency that Israel had attempted to kill a Hezbollah official who often frequented the targeted locations. It was unclear whether the official was among the dead.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said the strikes hit the neighborhoods of Nweiri and Basta.
“The first attack in Beirut targeted the third floor of an eight-story building” in the Nweiri area, and a second attack hit “a four-story building… in al-Basta al-Fouqa,” he said. NNA reported.
An AFP photographer at the site of the strike in the Basta area said two old buildings collapsed, while windows of surrounding houses were blown out by the force of the explosion.
Rescue services and local residents attempted to pull survivors from the mountain of rubble, some of them were carried on stretchers.
Firefighters worked to put out a fire at an affected residential building in the Nweiri area, with residents evacuated from upper floors using a ladder, NNA reported.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged cross-border fire almost daily for nearly a year in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.
But since September 23, Israel has stepped up its airstrikes on targets in Lebanon, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing more than a million to flee their homes, according to official data.
UN peacekeepers injured by Israeli tank fire
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said two of its peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired into a guard tower at the force’s main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura, hitting the tower and bringing down the peacekeepers.
There were no casualties in two other incidents, a U.N. source said.
“Any deliberate attack against peacekeepers is a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was monitoring the Israeli army’s action.
The White House said the United States is deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on United Nations positions and is pressing Israel for details.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its troops were operating in the Naqoura area, “near a UNIFIL base.”
“As a result, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) ordered the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, after which the forces opened fire in the area,” Israel’s statement read, adding that maintains routine communication with UNIFIL.
Hezbollah said it fired missiles Thursday at Israeli forces as they tried to remove victims from the Ras al-Naqoura area, and they took direct hits.
In New York, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said Israel recommended that “UNIFIL move five kilometers north to avoid danger as the fighting intensifies.”
