Israel has carried out a strike on Beirut for the first time since it agreed a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in November.
The Israeli military says the strike targeted a Hezbollah drone storage facility in the city’s southern suburbs, where support for the militant group is strong.
It comes after Israel’s army used a post on X in Arabic to urgently warn people to evacuate parts of a Beirut suburb on Friday as it vowed to retaliate against strikes that it said were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel.
Image: Smoke in areas bombed by Israeli forces in the south Lebanon town of Khiam. Pic: AP
Image: People try to find safety after an Israeli airstrike in Hadath, in Beirut Pic: AP
Lebanon’s government ordered all schools and universities in Beirut’s southern suburb of Hadath to close for the day.
Shooting could be heard in some parts of the southern suburbs, warning people to leave their homes, and many residents were seen fleeing the area in cars and on foot.
Associated Press reporters in Beirut said they heard a large boom and saw smoke rising from the area that Israel’s military had said it would strike.
Though it’s the first Israeli strike on Beirut since November’s ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group, Israel has struck targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones, and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
In September, Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of Hezbollah’s senior leaders as the bubbling conflict became an all-out war.
Image: An Israeli drone flies over southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Pic: AP
More than 4,000 people in Lebanon died, while around 60,000 Israelis were displaced.
Under the ceasefire that halted the fighting, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January.
The deadline was extended to February 18, but Israel has remained in five locations in Lebanon across from communities in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah, while continuing drone attacks that have killed several members of the militant group.
Limited strikes to send a message without ending ceasefire
It’s unclear who fired two missiles at northern Israel earlier – Hezbollah insists it wasn’t them, and the IDF hasn’t directly blamed the group. That suggests it could be someone else, perhaps factions of Hamas – but Israel is holding Hezbollah accountable for any actions along the border.
Both Israel and Lebanon blame the other for violating the ceasefire, and Lebanon’s president has called on the US and France to intervene, as both are sponsors of the deal, which was agreed in November.
Israel is right to call the firing of missiles across the border a breach, but despite the truce, it has been hitting targets in Lebanon regularly, and that could also be deemed a violation.
Friday’s bombing of Beirut was limited and targeted, and a warning was sent beforehand for civilians to evacuate the area.
That suggests Israel is trying to escalate the message it sends but, at the same time, avoiding actions that might result in the ceasefire collapsing.
The new government in Lebanon and the armed forces are still struggling to get overall security control of southern Lebanon, but it is in Israel’s interests to give them a chance to do so.
Hezbollah has been severely weakened militarily by Israel’s invasion last year, but only the Lebanese government can reduce their political influence within the country.
With the fighting resumed in Gaza and almost daily Houthi missile attacks on Israel now, Washington is unlikely to encourage a return to conflict in Lebanon too.
Six people died in Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Lebanon last week.
The UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the exchange of fire was deeply concerning, calling it a “critical period for Lebanon and the wider region”.
According to an Israeli official who was not authorised to speak to the media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting top security officials to discuss an impending strike on the capital.
The escalation came as Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people in Gaza.
Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly two million Palestinians.
Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns 59 hostages it still holds – 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is demanding that the group give up power, disarm, and send its leaders into exile.
Hamas has said it will release the remaining captives only in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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