KATHMANDU: Just after midnight on Monday, an Israeli airstrike struck an apartment building in Beirut, the first one in the center of the Lebanese capital since the Gaza War broke out last year.
Partially demolished, the structure was situated close to the airport road in Beirut, in the mostly Sunni suburb of Kola. Three of its fighters were confirmed dead in the strike, according to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Three members of the PFLP, Abdelrahman Abdel-Aal, Imad Odeh, and chief of military security Mohammad Abdel-Aal, were identified as the deceased. Despite being far smaller than Hezbollah, the group has fought against Israel.
16 people were hurt in the strike, according to a report from Lebanon's Civil Defense. The injured people's identities were withheld for a while.
While confirming previous operations in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they targeted many Hezbollah sites in the Beqaa Valley over night. They did not comment on the specific strike in Beirut.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that their strikes targeted Hezbollah's missile launchers, weapons storage facilities, and other southern Lebanon terror hotspots.
Ramot Naftali, a community close to the northern border, had rocket sirens sounded after the IDF intercepted a suspected aerial object that had infiltrated Israeli airspace from Lebanon overnight.
Israel's military operations have moved their attention from Gaza to Lebanon in the last few days. Notably, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was murdered by Israeli soldiers last Friday.
Israel launched strikes on 120 Hezbollah-related locations in southern Lebanon on Sunday alone, continuing their drive to weaken the terror group's capacity to assault Israeli land.
Drones hovered over Beirut throughout Sunday, with loud explosions from airstrikes echoing through the city. Many displaced families spent the night outside on benches at Zaitunay Bay, a waterfront area in Beirut.
The Israeli airstrike inside Beirut's city borders occurred on Monday in Kola. Locals told them that Syrians were taking refuge under a nearby bridge after fleeing southern Lebanon as a result of Israeli shelling.
The Israeli airstrike inside Beirut's city borders occurred on Monday in Kola. Locals told them that Syrians were taking refuge under a nearby bridge after fleeing southern Lebanon as a result of Israeli shelling.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that Israeli airstrikes killed at least 105 people and wounded 359 others on Sunday. However, the ministry did not specify how many of the casualties were civilians.
Despite Nasrallah’s death, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets into northern Israel on Sunday, including strikes on Haifa. However, no injuries or significant damage were reported in Israel.
Hezbollah began launching cross-border attacks on Israel on October 8 in solidarity with Hamas, which had launched an attack on Israel the previous day, sparking the ongoing Gaza war.
Being the first high-ranking foreign official to visit Lebanon since the intensification of Israeli airstrikes, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot landed in the nation on Sunday night.
Barrot conveyed France's demand for "an immediate halt" to Israeli bombings in Lebanon at his meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati of Lebanon.
The objectives of Israeli military operations in Lebanon, according to the group's leaders, are to secure the northern border to enable the return of displaced Israeli civilians and to limit Hezbollah's capacity to attack Israel.
Israeli military struck the Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, by targeting locations in Yemen over the weekend. Reports associated with the Houthis verified that the strikes caused 33 injuries and four fatalities.
The Yemen strikes followed the Houthis' claim that they had launched a missile targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, part of a series of attacks on Israeli and international shipping lanes, which the Houthis framed as solidarity with Hamas.
Israel's airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Nasrallah also eliminated 20 additional Hezbollah members. Earlier airstrikes had already killed top Hezbollah commanders, including Fuad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil, who led the group’s elite Radwan Force.
Nabil Qaouk, a central council member of Hezbollah and another prominent person, was killed by Israeli strikes on Saturday. Although Hezbollah has not formally declared his passing, others close to the organization have confirmed it.
Over 200,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon as a result of the violence, according to the UN refugee agency, while over 50,000 people have fled to Syria, a neighbor.
Up to a million people might have been relocated, according to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, making this possibly the greatest displacement movement in Lebanon's history.
Israel's airstrikes on Sunday night claimed multiple lives in the northern section of the Gaza territory, according to a report from Hamas's civil defense.
The IDF acknowledged that it was hitting a Hamas command center located in a former school in northern Gaza and said that enhanced monitoring techniques and the employment of accurate weaponry were employed to reduce the number of civilian casualties.
