Israel yesterday carried out its first major air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in months, retaliating for an earlier rocket launch from Lebanon in the most serious test of a shaky ceasefire deal agreed in November.
The strike targeted a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hizbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, that Israel said was a drone storage facility belonging to the Iranian-backed group.
The ceasefire has looked increasingly flimsy in recent weeks. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said last week it had intercepted rockets fired on March 22, which led it to bombard targets in southern Lebanon. Hizbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firing.
Israel is also renewing its military campaign in Gaza after the collapse of a January ceasefire with Hamas – a resumption of major warfare that has set the wider region back on edge.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday Israel would continue to attack anywhere in Lebanon to counter threats and enforce a ceasefire agreement with Hizbollah.
The south Beirut air strike was heard across the Lebanese capital and produced a large column of black smoke. It followed an evacuation order by Israel’s military for the neighbourhood, and three smaller targeted drone strikes on the building intended as warning shots, security sources told Reuters.
The evacuation directive sent residents of the area into a panic. They rushed to escape on foot as traffic clogged the streets out of the area, Reuters reporters in the area said.
Beirut’s southern suburbs were pounded last year by Israeli air strikes that killed many of Hizbollah’s top leaders, including its powerful long-time chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a September air attack.
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