An Israeli airstrike collapsed a multi-storey apartment complex in central Beirut, killing at least one person and injuring dozens.
advertisementIsrael carried out its first airstrikes in central Beirut after nearly a year of conflict, flattening an apartment building on Monday morning.
Witnesses said the strike hit a multi-storey residential building. Videos showed ambulances and crowds gathered near buildings in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood, which has a busy street lined with shops.
A Lebanese civil defense official said at least one person was killed and 16 wounded in the airstrike.
He said the person killed was a member of al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah, or Islamist group, a Sunni political militant group allied with Hezbollah. The group is not known to have played any meaningful role in the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
A Palestinian leftist group in Lebanon said three of its members were killed in the airstrike.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement early Monday that its military and security commander in Lebanon and a third member were killed in the attack.
This comes as Hezbollah has suffered major blows to its command structure, including the killing of its leader. Hasan Nasrallah.
Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs over the past week. The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence, including a major attack that killed Nasrallah on Friday, but has not attacked areas near the city center.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
Other senior Hezbollah leaders also died
Hezbollah previously confirmed that Nabil Khaok, deputy head of the militant group’s central committee, was killed on Saturday.
This makes him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader to be killed in an Israeli attack in a little over a week. This includes founding members who escaped death or imprisonment for decades.
Hezbollah confirmed that another senior commander, Ali Karaqi, was killed in the airstrike that killed Nasrallah. Israel said at least 20 Hezbollah militants were killed, including one Nasrallah security chief.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry recorded Sunday’s airstrikes killing at least 105 people across the country.
Strikes occur elsewhere in Lebanon
At least 32 people were killed in two attacks near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 kilometers south of Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Separately, Israel carried out airstrikes in the northern Baalbek Hermel province, killing 21 people and wounding at least 47 others. There were other airstrikes.
advertisementThe Israeli military previously said it had launched another targeted attack on Beirut, but did not immediately provide further details.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern, western Bekaa and south, as well as in Beirut. The death toll was expected to increase as the airstrikes targeted buildings occupied by civilians.
In the strike video sidonThe building shook and then collapsed as neighbors filmed it. One television station posted photos of the family, asking viewers to pray for them trapped in the rubble after rescuers failed to rescue them.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported the deaths of at least 14 health workers in two days in the south.
advertisementThe Israeli military said the attack degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities and that the number of shots fired would have been much higher if Hezbollah had not been attacked.
