Following Israel’s announcement of its second strike on the capital of Lebanon in a precarious four-month truce, Lebanon reported that an Israeli strike on south Beirut killed at least three persons on Tuesday.
The unexpected incident occurred on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at approximately 3:30 am (0030 GMT). It followed Israel’s Friday evacuation warning and subsequent attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah support.
“The strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians,” the Israeli military said in a statement released in conjunction with the Shin Bet intelligence service in Israel.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike killed three people and wounded seven others.
An AFP photographer at the scene said the top two floors of a multi-storey building were destroyed and that debris covered the street. Panicked residents poured of their homes as rescue workers helped the wounded.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged his nation’s foreign friends to back “our right to full sovereignty” and denounced the strike.
The attack, according to Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, was a “clear breach” of a ceasefire agreement that effectively put an end to over a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Days after hitting the southern suburbs in response to rocket fire from Lebanon, which it attributed to the Lebanese terrorist group, Israel’s military said it “acted to eliminate him and removed the threat” without naming the purported Hezbollah operative.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the country’s military would “strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat” in response to the rocket fire.
Israel has continued to carry out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon in the months since the November 27 ceasefire, hitting what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement.
