Israel has carried out a strike on Beirut for the first time since it agreed a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in November.
The Israeli military says the strike targeted infrastructure storing drones that were used by Hezbollah in the city’s southern suburbs, where the militant group has a strong presence.
It comes after Israel’s army used a post on X in Arabic to urgently warn people to evacuate parts of a Beirut suburb on Friday as it vowed to retaliate against strikes that it said were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel.
Heavy smoke in areas bombed by Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese border town of Khiam. Pic: AP
People try to find safety after an Israeli airstrike in Hadath, in Beirut Pic: AP
Lebanon’s government ordered all schools and universities in Beirut’s southern suburb of Hadath to close for the day.
In some parts of the southern suburbs, shooting could be heard, warning people to leave their homes, and many residents were seen fleeing the area in cars and on foot.
Associated Press reporters in Beirut said they heard a large boom and saw smoke rising from the area that Israel’s military had said it would strike.
An Israeli drone flies over southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Pic: AP
Though it’s the first Israeli strike on Beirut since November’s ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group, Israel has struck targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones, and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into all-out war in September as Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders.
The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.
Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January under the ceasefire deal.
The deadline was extended to February 18, but Israel has remained in five locations in Lebanon across from communities in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah, while continuing drone attacks that have killed several members of the militant group.
Last week, Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Lebanon killed six people.
The UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the exchange of fire was deeply concerning.
“This is a critical period for Lebanon and the wider region,” she said on Friday.
According to an Israeli official who was not authorised to speak to the media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting top security officials to discuss an impending strike on the capital.
The escalation comes as Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people in Gaza.
Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly two million Palestinians.
Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns 59 hostages it still holds – 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is demanding that the group give up power, disarm and send its leaders into exile.
Hamas has said it will release the remaining captives only in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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