September 30, 2024
JERUSALEM (AP) — The first apparent Israeli airstrike on central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict leveled an apartment building early Monday, hours after Israel hit targets across Lebanon as Hezbollah sustained heavy blows to its command structure, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The airstrike hit a multistory residential building, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building in a mainly Sunni district with a busy thoroughfare lined with shops.
The airstrike killed at least one person and wounded 16, said an official with Lebanese Civil Defense, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the person killed was a member of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, a Sunni political and militant group that is 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 faction 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 commanders in Lebanon, and a third member were killed in the attack.
In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence — including a major strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah — but had not hit locations near the city center.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group’s Central Council, was killed Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
Hezbollah also confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including one in charge of Nasrallah's security detail.
The Israeli military previously said it also carried out another targeted strike on Beirut, but did not immediately provide details.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa and in the south, besides strikes on Beirut.
Meanwhile, wreckage from the strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah was still smoldering. AP journalists saw smoke over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what was left of their homes and others to pay respects, pray or simply to see the destruction.
In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its attacks in the past week, from several dozen to several hundred daily, the Israeli military said. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems or fell in open areas.
The army says its strikes have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities and the number of launches would be much higher if Hezbollah had not been hit.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said dozens of its aircraft struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack on Israel. The military said it targeted power plants and seaport facilities in the city of Hodeida.
The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion airport on Saturday when Netanyahu was arriving. The Houthi media office said the Israeli strikes hit the Hodeida and Rass Issa ports, along with two power plants in Hodeida city, a stronghold for the Iranian-backed rebels.
The Houthis claimed they took precautionary measures ahead of the strikes, emptying oil storages in the ports, according to Nasruddin Ammer, deputy director of the Houthi media office. He said in a post on X that the strikes won’t stop the rebels’ attacks on shipping routes and on Israel.
Meanwhile, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure, but he warned the group will work quickly to rebuild it.
“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough. … Much of their command structure has now been wiped out.”
