Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Thursday night’s Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed 22 people and injured 117 others.
BBC reporters heard a loud explosion echoing from the site of the airstrike in the capital’s small Shiite neighborhood of Bachora. Rescue workers could be seen digging through the rubble at the scene.
Ambulances transported many injured people to American University Hospital.
Media outlets cited security sources as saying Wafik Safa, a close ally of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the apparent target of the airstrike, survived. Neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah commented.
Israeli airstrikes hit two residential areas in Bachora, Nweiri and Basta, both densely populated areas.
They arrived after two days of relative peace in the Lebanese capital, but the atmosphere remained unusual after intensive strikes in recent weeks.
There was no advance warning, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment.
This is Israel’s third airstrike on a city outside the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, which it has carried out repeatedly, killing Hezbollah commanders and destroying ammunition depots.
One woman outside the hospital, who requested anonymity, said she was in the building next door to the explosion.
She said the damaged building was completely residential and about four or five stories high. One of her relatives was being treated for a head injury.
The Beirut attack came hours after an Israeli tank opened fire on a guard tower in southern Lebanon, wounding two Indonesian peacekeepers, the United Nations said.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement that a peacekeeping force was knocked down after an observation tower at the UN base in Nakoura was hit.
Unifil is a peacekeeping mission established in 1978 to monitor hostilities and help ensure humanitarian access for civilians in southern Lebanon.
The United Nations said Israeli forces had “repeatedly attacked” UN positions in the past 24 hours. Israeli soldiers are also suspected of deliberately firing at cameras and lights at two other UNIFIL bases.
The IDF said its forces opened fire from the area surrounding the base after ordering the base’s members to remain in a “protected area.”
The United Nations said the two peacekeepers were not seriously injured but remain hospitalized, adding that the deliberate attack on the peacekeepers was a “grave violation of international law.”
In another incident, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a base in Nakoura, “hitting the entrance to a bunker where peacekeepers were taking shelter and damaging vehicles and communication systems,” the UN added.
Israeli drones were also seen flying over the bunker entrance.
In Nakoura, Hezbollah also said it fired rockets at Israeli soldiers on the ground and used guided missiles to destroy tanks heading toward the area, causing casualties.
Four Israeli divisions are currently fighting inside Lebanon as the ground operation against Hezbollah continues, which began on September 30th.
A UNIFIL spokesperson told the BBC on Thursday that the force was “alarmed” and “deeply concerned” by Israeli military activity in areas where peacekeepers are based.
Andrea Tenenti said the spot where Israeli forces attacked was a well-known UN stronghold, adding that it was important to speak with Israeli authorities “to understand what happened.”
UNIFIL operates in southern Lebanon, between the so-called “Blue Line” – the unofficial border separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – and the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the north.
UNIFIL refused to leave its positions near the Blue Line last week after receiving orders from the IDF.
There are approximately 10,000 UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon from 50 countries. There are also about 800 civilian employees.
Indonesia, the homeland of the wounded peacekeepers, is providing UNIFIL with more than 1,200 troops, more than any other country.
Italy’s defense minister, which provides more than 1,000 troops to UNIFIL, said the incident was “unacceptable” and must be “cautiously and decisively avoided”.
On Thursday, Hezbollah fired about 190 rockets from Lebanon toward Israel, according to the IDF.
Earlier on Thursday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that four people were killed and 17 injured in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Karak in eastern Lebanon.
The Lebanese government says up to 1.2 million people have fled their homes in the past year.
Hostilities in the region have steadily increased since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after a deadly attack on southern Israel by its ally Hamas that killed around 1,200 people. It’s escalating. A further 251 people were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Some 42,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
