BEIRUT – The Israeli military struck a building in Beirut's southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least four people, as the military said it had targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.
The airstrike came without warning days after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday for the first time since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group in November. The Israeli military then had warned residents in the crowded suburbs before the attack after two projectiles were launched from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah denied firing.
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At least seven other people were wounded in Tuesday's airstrike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said in a statement the latest strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip in planning an attack “against Israeli civilians.” It said the airstrike was “under the direction of the Shin Bet,” Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the airstrike.
“We must prevent any violation of sovereignty from abroad, or from infiltrators within who provide an additional pretext for aggression,” Aoun wrote in a statement posted on X. The former military chief vowed after his election in January that all weapons would be at the hands of the Lebanese state, indirectly referring to Hezbollah's arms.
Among those killed in the airstrike were Hezbollah official Hassan Bdeir and his son, Ali, according to a Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak publicly to the media. The official said that the two other people killed were their neighbors: two siblings, a young man and a woman.
Another Hezbollah official denied Israeli military statements that Bdeir was preparing an attack against Israel, adding that one of his jobs was to meet with Palestinian officials. Bdeir was not a senior official within Hezbollah and did not take any precautionary measures, the official said, adding that Bdeir was moving around and residing in his home normally before Tuesday’s airstrike.
Senior Hezbollah legislator Ali Ammar said the group does not want war.
“But at the same time, if war is imposed on Hezbollah … then Hezbollah is fully prepared to deter any assault," Ammar said in a statement to the press at the site of the airstrike.
Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed the top three floors of an apartment building damaged following the strike. Piles of debris on cars below the building can be seen.
Jets were heard in parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Hay Madi neighborhood. During Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli drones and jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel sees the area as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there.
“We were at home. It was Eid al-Fitr,” said Hussein Nour El-Din, a resident in the neighborhood, referring to the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. “We didn’t know where it happened, but once the smoke cleared we saw it was the building facing us.”
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned Saturday that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanon's government does not act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.
Israel has launched daily strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect, saying it targets Hezbollah officials and infrastructure. The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the country’s southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory.
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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.