BEIRUT — Israel’s military said Tuesday it carried out a strike on Beirut targeting the militant commander allegedly behind the deaths of 12 children and teens in a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend.
Israel has blamed the rocket attack in the town of Majdal Shams on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has denied any role in the Saturday attack. “Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday’s strike.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security advisor and other officials.
A Hezbollah official and the group’s TV station said that an Israeli airstrike hit Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut on Tuesday evening, causing damage.
The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik damaged several buildings but it was not immediately clear if any Hezbollah official was hit, the Hezbollah official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The strike hit an apartment building next to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass. Paramedics could be seen carrying several injured people out of the damaged buildings. It was not immediately clear if anyone had been killed.
A resident of the suburb who was home, about 200 metres away, when the attack happened said that the dust from the explosion “covered everything,” and that the glass in his son’s apartment was broken.
“Then people went down on the streets,” he said. “Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction.”
He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns about his security at a tense moment.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the airstrike in the southern Beirut suburb was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January, when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri. That strike was the first time Israel had hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.