Israeli attack destroys a residential building in a Beirut suburb as France’s Macron decries ‘unacceptable’ strike.
Israel has carried out an air strike on Lebanon’s capital for the first time since a fragile truce between the Israeli army and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in November halted a war between the two.
Residents fled as a building was flattened in the Hadath neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday when Israel carried out four strikes – an attack reminiscent of the months-long bombing campaign of last year when Israeli jets pounded the area.
“We are by the building attacked by Israel, and it is total destruction here,” Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reported. “It is a residential block in which many families lived, and many of them watched the building as Israeli warplanes destroyed it.”
Hashem said surrounding apartments and shops were damaged in the attack.
The Israeli military said the target was a Hezbollah military storage facility for drones.
Israel launched the attack after rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israeli territory, the second such incident in the past week. Hezbollah denied involvement both times, and no other group has claimed responsibility.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the Lebanese army to quickly identify and arrest those responsible for the rocket fire, saying it “threatens Lebanon’s stability and security”, according to a statement from his office.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Lebanese government bears direct responsibility for the rocket fire and, as long as there was no peace in northern Israel, “there will be no peace in Beirut either.”
Israel and Hezbollah traded fire for more than a year after the Lebanese armed group started firing rockets towards northern Israel in October 2023 in what it said was solidarity with Hamas in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The exchanges of fire continued for months until Israel dramatically escalated the conflict in September and killed much of Hezbollah’s leadership before the two parties signed a ceasefire on November 27.
According to the United States- and French-brokered deal, Israel should have pulled out its troops from southern Lebanon, but it has failed to withdraw soldiers from five locations in Lebanon. For its part, Hezbollah agreed to move its fighters and weapons north of the Litani River to leave southern Lebanon under the sole military control of the Lebanese army.
Macron criticises Israeli strike
Speaking in Paris, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the strike on the Beirut suburbs was a continuation “of Israel’s violations of the agreement” sponsored by France and the US.
During a joint news conference with Aoun, French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “unacceptable” and promised to address it with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said the escalation had created “a critical period for Lebanon and the wider region”.
Israel has promised a strong response to any threats to its security, prompting fears that last year’s war – which displaced more than 1.3 million people in Lebanon and destroyed much of the country’s south – could resume.
Political analyst Yossi Beilin told Al Jazeera that “the fact that Israel reacted in Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire is very relevant and consequential.”
“This is the time and place for the Americans and the French to put an end to the current situation,” Beilin said. “Hezbollah is not Lebanon,” but it is a “militia that is independent and that is the difficulty we are facing here”, he said.
Israel also carried out attacks in the town of Kafr Tibnit in southern Lebanon on Friday, killing three people and wounding 18, including children and women, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.