Israel strikes residential buildings near Beirut it says housed Hezbollah headquarters

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli forces destroyed several residential buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Friday afternoon, asserting that the central headquarters of Hezbollah was underneath them.

The airstrikes came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel gave a defiant speech at the United Nations General Assembly, defending his government’s handling of wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and vowing to continue fighting despite international calls for a cease-fire.

The target of the strike was Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, according to two Israeli and two American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. It was not immediately clear whether Nasrallah was in the buildings when they were hit.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said that the strikes had caused the “complete decimation” of four to six residential buildings, adding that the number of casualties in hospitals was so far low because most people were still trapped under the rubble.

“They are residential buildings. They were filled with people,” Abiad told The New York Times. “Whoever is in those buildings is now under the rubble.”

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on buildings in the Dahiya, a group of crowded neighborhoods south of Beirut where Hezbollah dominates, and one that is also home to shops, businesses and apartment buildings.

Najib Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, said the latest attack south of Beirut proved that “the Israeli enemy pays no heed at all to the efforts and international calls for a cease-fire.”

Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike had come after almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at Israel. “Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do,” he said.

Hagari said that Hezbollah had deliberately embedded its military operations in “the heart” of these residential neighborhoods, using Lebanese civilians as human shields.

At the U.N., Netanyahu portrayed defeating Hezbollah as an existential mission for Israel and called the group “a terror army perched on our northern border.”

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since the war in Gaza began last October. But over the past 10 days, Israel has moved more decisively against the group, launching one of the biggest bombing campaigns in modern military history and targeting Hezbollah commanders.

The militia, for its part, has pledged to continue its attacks on Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, and the back-and-forth strikes have not ceased.

Here’s what else to know:

Netanyahu gives no ground

In his speech, Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, made no mention of international efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon. He also threatened Iran after almost a full year of war against Tehran-backed groups, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. According to his office, he will return to Israel on Friday evening, the Jewish Sabbath, a highly unusual move that underscores the gravity of the situation after the latest strikes south of Beirut targeting Hezbollah leaders.

Abbas speech

In a speech that drew applause and chants of “Free, free Palestine” from diplomats, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, used his speech at the United Nations to call on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel. He accused the country of carrying out a “war of genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Bombardment in Gaza

Even as Israel’s attention has shifted to Lebanon in the north, the Israeli military said Thursday that it had struck a school used as a shelter in Gaza, which it said housed a Hamas command center. Palestinian Civil Defense officials said 35 people, including women and children, had been killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave Thursday, with 15 dead in the bombing of the former school.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company