MONITORING (SW) – At least 22 people have been killed and 117 injured in Israeli air strikes on central Beirut on Thursday evening, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
BBC reporters heard loud explosions echoing from the site of the strikes in Bachoura, a small Shia area in the capital. Rescuers were seen digging through rubble at the scene. Ambulances rushed many injured to the American University hospital.
Unconfirmed media reports suggested the apparent target was Wafiq Safa, assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s brother-in-law and a high-ranking security official in the group. Hezbollah’s media office has not commented.
The Israeli strikes hit residential buildings in Bachoura’s two densely packed neighbourhoods, Nweiri and Basta.
They came after two relatively calm days in the Lebanese capital, which has felt unusual after intensive strikes in recent weeks.
There was no warning beforehand, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.
This is the third time Israel has launched air strikes on the city outside of the southern suburb of Dahieh, where it has struck repeatedly, killing Hezbollah commanders and destroying munitions caches.
The Beirut attack came hours after two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured in southern Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower, according to the UN.
An observation tower at a UN base in Naqoura was directly hit, causing the peacekeepers to fall, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said in a statement.
Unifil is a peacekeeping mission created in 1978, monitoring hostilities and helping to ensure humanitarian access to civilians in southern Lebanon.
The UN said Israeli forces had “repeatedly hit” UN positions in the last 24 hours. Israeli soldiers are also accused of deliberately shooting at the cameras and lights at two other Unifil bases.
The IDF said its troops had fired from the area around the base after ordering members of the base to remain in “protected places”.
Earlier on Thursday, the Lebanese ministry of public health said an Israeli air strike on the village of Karak in eastern Lebanon had killed four people, injuring 17.
Lebanon’s government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes over the past year.
Hostilities in the region have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. A further 251 were taken to the Gaza Strip as hostages.
Since 7 October, nearly 42,000 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
