The attack is the latest violation of a ceasefire Israel signed one year ago to end hostilities in Lebanon that erupted into full-blown war.
The Israeli military has attacked the southern suburbs of Beirut, saying it has struck a Hezbollah operative in Dahiyeh.
The attack on Sunday is the latest violation of the ceasefire Israel signed one year ago to end hostilities in Lebanon that had erupted into a full-blown war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the orders for a strike in Beirut on Sunday that targeted Hezbollah’s “chief of staff”, his office said.
Haytham Ali Tabatabai is Hezbollah’s chief of staff. Israeli media say the military tried to kill him twice during last year’s war. This would represent a third attempt. Hezbollah has yet to confirm if he was injured or killed.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that an enemy air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted an apartment building in Haret Hreik. Injuries were reported, and significant damage was inflicted on cars and surrounding buildings.
Two missiles were fired at the building on al-Arid Street, the agency said. Ambulances arrived immediately at the scene and transported the injured to nearby hospitals.
A large plume of smoke could be seen in the busy neighbourhood, according to local media.
One video widely circulated on social media shows dozens of people crowded around the area of the strike, which appears to be just next to a building.
media’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said the fact that the capital was targeted without prior warning is an indication that they were after “a high value target”.
She said that Israel has previously issued forced evacuation orders before its strikes on the capital.
“We still have no confirmation, but if indeed Haytham Ali Tabatabai was targeted and killed, this would be a major blow to the organisation, which already suffered many blows in Israel’s war against the group,” she said.
“It would also be a major security breach,” she added.
Israel assassinated longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on southern Beirut just over a year ago.
The strike comes days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country amid intensified Israeli aggression in recent weeks.
Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said that Israel has been striking all of Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement was brokered by Washington about a year ago.
“Every attack on Lebanon is a crossing of a red line, and this aggression is inherent in the entity that targets Lebanon’s dignity, sovereignty, and the security of its citizens,” he said.
Speaking to media, Souhaib Jawher, a nonresident fellow at the Alternative Policy Institute, said of the possible target: “I believe that Tabatabai was the one reorganising Hezbollah’s military leadership, and the targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut is an indication that the Lebanese state has no guarantees against the expansion of such attacks.”
He said it is “a means of exerting pressure, and there is no destructive decision that constitutes a ground invasion as long as the atmosphere is open to bombing and assassination”.
“Lebanon has offered everything, including clearing the area south of the Litani River of weapons and agreeing to direct negotiations. The president presented an initiative two days ago, but the current situation benefits Israel,” Souhaib added on Sunday.
Repeated Israeli attacks
Israel has been carrying out near-daily strikes on southern Lebanon and has also attacked Beirut several times, but the capital had not been hit in the past several months.
At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon this week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
A drone hit a car on Tuesday in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run NNA reported.
Israel and the United States have been piling the pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.
The Lebanese military issued a plan that the government approved in September that would disarm Hezbollah across the country by the end of the year. Hezbollah has refused to do so while Israel continues to bomb the country and occupy parts of the south.
Israel has said Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon whereas the Lebanese government has denied those claims.
