Israeli strike targets Dahieh for first time since war
An Israeli airstrike on Friday targeted the Beirut southern suburb of al-Jamous, destroying two buildings, following an Israeli evacuation warning, the first such raid since a November ceasefire largely halted hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
TV footage showed heavy black smoke billowing from the area, which is densely populated and home to residential buildings and schools.
The Israeli warning for evacuating a building sparked panic in the area, with parents rushing to pick up their children from schools that quickly shut.
Heavy traffic clogged roads around the southern suburbs as many residents of the area, which Israel heavily bombed during two months of war with Hezbollah from September last year, tried to flee.
Education Minister Rima Karami had ordered all schools and universities in Hadath to close for the day. In some parts of the southern suburbs, shooting could be heard warning people to leave their homes and many residents were seen fleeing the area in cars and on foot.
Israel’s military had warned people in a post on X in Arabic to evacuate buildings in the area.
“You are located near facilities affiliated with Hezbollah,” it said alongside a map with a building marked in red.
After the strike, Israel’s army said it attacked a Hezbollah drone storage facility, accusing Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields and saying it issued advanced warning for people to leave.
It added that the rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon earlier in the morning were a “blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.” It also pledged to continue operations “in order to remove any threat to the civilians of the State of Israel.”
Chaos engulfed the southern suburbs of Beirut as Lebanese tried to flee the area, and a large smoke cloud rose over the city following the strike.
The area struck is a residential and commercial area and is in close proximity to at least two schools, which sustained material damage.
Hezbollah denied firing the rockets at northern Israel, and accused Israel of seeking a pretext to continue attacking Lebanon.
Israel's army said it earlier struck "Hezbollah targets" in southern Lebanon after the rocket fire. Israel's Defense Minister said Friday that if there was no peace in Israel's northern communities there would be no peace in Beirut either.
Israeli strikes in other parts of Lebanon on Friday killed three people and wounded 18, including children and women, in the southern village of Kfar Tibnit, said Lebanon's health ministry.
Speaking from Paris, President Joseph Aoun said the strike on a Beirut suburb was a continuation “of Israel’s violations of the agreement” that was sponsored by France and the U.S.
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Naharnet
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