Israeli forces conducted an airstrike on a residential apartment building in the Bchamoun area on the southern outskirts of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, early Tuesday without warning. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, the attack killed at least two people and wounded five others. Footage circulating online showed at least one apartment in the building engulfed in flames, highlighting the intensity of the strike.
Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, stated there has been "no letup" in attacks as the Israeli army issued a new forced evacuation threat for the southern suburbs of the capital, purportedly targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. She noted that while Hezbollah has a presence in the area, residential buildings and businesses are also being hit. Khodr added, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry, that at least three people were killed in targeted assassinations overnight in Beirut.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted members of the Quds Force, the foreign unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), though this is not the first such allegation in Lebanon. Iran has previously acknowledged that four Iranians were killed in a targeted strike at a hotel early in the conflict but insisted they were civilians. Israeli forces have pounded Lebanon with air attacks and launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by Hezbollah on March 2, in response to regional tensions.
Lebanese authorities report that at least 1,039 people have been killed and 2,876 injured in Israeli attacks since the conflict escalated. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) detailed that overnight Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, hit seven areas, including Bir al-Abed, Al-Ruwais, and Haret Hreik. Additionally, Israeli forces struck an Amana company petrol station in Rashidieh, near Tyre, sending a large plume of fire into the air—part of a pattern of attacks on what Israel alleges is Hezbollah's "economic infrastructure."
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday that the conflict has displaced over 1.2 million people, amounting to about one in five individuals across Lebanon. Al Jazeera's Obaida Hitto, reporting from Beirut, emphasized that Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon are making it "extremely difficult" for people south of the Litani River to leave and hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid. In a concerning development, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich allegedly stated that the war against Hezbollah must end with a "fundamental change," including Israeli control of Lebanon up to the Litani River, raising fears of prolonged occupation and further regional instability.
Source: www.aljazeera.com