The Israeli military has launched an attack on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing at least five people and wounding 28 others, Lebanon’s health ministry says, calling it a “final toll”.
In a statement shortly on Sunday, the Israeli military said it “eliminated” Hezbollah’s chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai in the strike on an apartment block in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier said Tabatabai was the target of the attack. Israeli media said it was the military’s third attempt to kill him since last year’s war.
Hezbollah has yet to confirm if Tabatabai was injured or killed in the attack.
However, senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati confirmed a central figure from the group was targeted, saying Israel’s strike crossed a “red line” and that the group’s leadership was considering whether it would respond.
People gather around the building hit by Israel in Beirut’s Haret Hreik neighbourhood [Ibrahim Amro/AFP]
The Israeli attack took place despite a ceasefire that came into effect a year ago to end hostilities that had erupted into a full-blown war.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that two missiles were fired at the apartment building on al-Arid Street in Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Dahiyeh, and significant damage was inflicted on cars and surrounding buildings.
Ambulances arrived immediately at the scene and transported the injured to nearby hospitals, it said. A large plume of smoke could be seen in the busy neighbourhood, according to the local media.
One video widely circulated on social media showed dozens of people crowded around the area of the strike.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said a senior Hezbollah source told her a senior commander of the group was the target.
“There’s still no confirmation, but the very fact that this Israeli strike happened without an evacuation order, without a prior warning if you will, really suggests that they were after a high profile figure or a high-value target,” she said.
“Israel said the person killed was Haytham Ali Tabatabai. He is believed to be the number two of the movement, one of the founding members of the organisation. A very keen military figure; a man wanted by the United States, which designated him as a terrorist. There’s a $5m bounty on his whereabouts,” she added, calling the Israeli attack “a major security breach”.
‘Means of exerting pressure’
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to intervene firmly to stop the Israeli attacks on the country.
In a statement on Sunday, Aoun said Lebanon “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Souhaib Jawher, a nonresident fellow at the Alternative Policy Institute, said of the possible target: “I believe that Tabatabai was the one reorganising Hezbollah’s military leadership, and the targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut is an indication that the Lebanese state has no guarantees against the expansion of such attacks.”
He said it is “a means of exerting pressure, and there is no destructive decision that constitutes a ground invasion as long as the atmosphere is open to bombing and assassination”.
“Lebanon has offered everything, including clearing the area south of the Litani River of weapons and agreeing to direct negotiations. The president presented an initiative two days ago, but the current situation benefits Israel,” Souhaib added on Sunday.
Israel assassinated longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on southern Beirut just over a year ago.
Sunday’s strike came only days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country amid intensified Israeli aggression in recent weeks.
Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said Israel has been striking all of Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement was brokered by the United States about a year ago.
“Every attack on Lebanon is a crossing of a red line, and this aggression is inherent in the entity that targets Lebanon’s dignity, sovereignty, and the security of its citizens,” he said.
Repeated Israeli attacks
Israel has been carrying out near-daily strikes on southern Lebanon and has also attacked Beirut several times, but the capital had not been hit in the past several months.
At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon this week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
A drone hit a car on Tuesday in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run NNA reported.
Israel and the US have been piling the pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.
The Lebanese military issued a plan that the government approved in September that would disarm Hezbollah across the country by the end of the year. Hezbollah has refused to do so while Israel continues to bomb the country and occupy parts of the south.
Israel has said Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon whereas the Lebanese government has denied those claims.
