Israel launches several attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, south Lebanon

This is the fourth time Israel has attacked the Lebanese capital since the November ceasefire with Hezbollah.

A series of Israeli strikes have targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, almost an hour after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order to residents in areas that it says held underground facilities used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah for drone production.

The attack on Thursday is the fourth time Israel has bombed Beirut since a ceasefire with Hezbollah went into effect in November. It has carried out assassinations and announced strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah sites.

Israel has violated the ceasefire on a near-daily basis for seven months, according to the Lebanese government led by President Joseph Aoun, Arab nations and rights groups. Aoun has recently appealed to the United States and France to rein Israel in.

Aoun, in a statement on Thursday after the strikes, voiced “firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression” and “flagrant violation of an international accord … on the eve of a sacred religious festival”.

Before the attacks, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had ordered residents living near buildings in the neighbourhoods of Hadath, Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh in the Dahiyeh suburbs to evacuate.

“You are next to infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah,” Adraee said in a social media post, which included a map of the eight buildings being targeted in four different locations. The message in Arabic indicated that Israel would soon bomb the area.

After the evacuation order, Lebanese media reported the area was nearly emptied of inhabitants, who had been preparing to celebrate Eid al-Adha. It was sealed off as “warning strikes” could be heard, the reports said.

The Wafa news agency reported that 100 housing units were destroyed in Israel’s strikes on southern Beirut.

Khodr said up to eight buildings were targeted in four densely populated neighbourhoods, adding that the magnitude of these air strikes meant all the area’s residents had to flee.

Analyst Rami Khouri told media that the attack was “no surprise”, as Israel has been assassinating people “over the last three, four months. They’ve continued occupying five places in South Lebanon after the ceasefire agreement.”

“The Israelis have always used military force as their main instrument to get their foes to submit to them,” he said.  “But the irony is that it hasn’t worked. It has only generated great dissent, and we’ll have to see in Lebanon what it means … Hezbollah took a hit last year, and they’re obviously regrouping,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but they are regrouping,” he added.

Video verified by media’s Sanad agency showed people hurrying away after the evacuation warning:

‘A lot of panic’

The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of manufacturing drones in the area in a “blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

A Hezbollah official denied that there were drone production facilities at the targeted locations.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also issued a statement condemning the strikes. He called on the international community to deter Israel from “continuing its aggressions” and compel it to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory.

The Lebanese army on Friday condemned the attacks and said it may suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

“The Israeli enemy violations of the deal and its refusal to respond to the committee is weakening the role of the committee and the army,” the Lebanese army said in its statement. It said such attacks by Israel could lead the army to freeze its cooperation with the committee “when it comes to searching posts.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz hailed the strikes on Beirut: “We will continue to enforce the ceasefire rules without any compromises and will not allow any entity to create threats against the northern communities and all citizens of the State of Israel.”

The 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians. The Lebanese government said in April that Israeli strikes had killed another 190 people and wounded nearly 500 since the ceasefire.