Israel targets Hezbollah commander in strike on Beirut suburb
30 July 2024, 22:34
Israel says it was targeting the militant commander allegedly behind the deaths of 12 children in a rocket attack on Golan Heights.
Israel’s military said has it carried out a strike on Beirut targeting the militant commander allegedly behind the deaths of 12 children and teenagers in a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said one woman was killed.
Israel has blamed the rocket attack on the Hezbollah militant group, which has denied any role in the Saturday attack.
“Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X, formerly Twitter, shortly after Tuesday’s strike.
The office of 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 an Israeli airstrike hit Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut on Tuesday evening, causing damage.
The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik damaged several buildings, the Hezbollah official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that the strike 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.
It was not immediately clear if the intended target of the strike had been killed or injured.
The strike hit an apartment building next to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building.
The hospital sustained minor damage, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.
Paramedics could be seen carrying several injured people out of the damaged buildings.
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.
A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 metres 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 National News Agency reported that the airstrike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
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.
US vice president Kamala Harris said she “unequivocally” supports Israel’s right to defend itself.
Ms Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said “I unequivocally support Israel’s right to remain secure and to defend the security of Israel”.
“What we know, in particular, is it has the right to defend itself against the terrorist organisation, which is exactly what Hezbollah is,” she added.
Speaking to reporters as she arrived in Atlanta ahead of a campaign rally, Ms Harris added that “we still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work”.
