On Friday, Israeli forces launched four strikes in the Hadath neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an attack that recalls the area’s months-long bombing campaign last year when Israeli jets bombed the area.
According to Ali Hashem of Al Jazeera, “We are by the building that Israel has attacked, and it is total destruction here.” Many of the families who lived there watched as the building was destroyed by Israeli warplanes.
Hashem claimed that the attack damaged the area’s shops and apartments.
The Israeli military claimed that the drone-related target was a Hezbollah military storage facility.
The rocket launch, which was Israel’s second in a row, came after Lebanon fired rockets at Israeli territory. No other organization has claimed responsibility for the two times that Hezbollah has denied involvement.
According to a statement from his office, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam instructed the Lebanese army to quickly identify and detain the rocket fire’s perpetrators, saying it “threatens Lebanon’s stability and security.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Beirut will not be peaceful as long as there is no peace in northern Israel. Katz claimed that the Lebanese government is directly responsible for the rocket fire.
Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire for more than a year after the Lebanese armed group started firing rockets at northern Israel in October 2023 in a show of support for Hamas during Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip. Before the two parties agreed to end the fighting on November 27, Israel dramatically escalated the conflict in September and killed a large portion of Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel should have withdrawn its troops from southern Lebanon, according to the US- and French-brokered agreement, but it has failed to do so in five locations. Hezbollah, for its part, agreed to abandon southern Lebanon under the Lebanese army’s exclusive military control and move its weapons and fighters north of the Litani River.
Israeli strike is criticized by Macron.
Joseph Aoun, the president of Lebanon, stated in Paris that the strike on the Beirut suburbs was a continuation of “Israel’s violations of the agreement” sponsored by France and the US.
French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the controversy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during a joint press conference with Aoun. He declared the attack “unacceptable.”
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special representative for Lebanon, claimed that the conflict had “created a crucial period for Lebanon and the entire region.”
Concerned that the war from last year, which displaced more than 1.3 million people in Lebanon and destroyed much of the country’s south, might resume, Israel has promised to be strong in response to any threats to its security.
The first time Israel has responded to the ceasefire since the ceasefire is very relevant and consequential, according to political analyst Yossi Beilin.
According to Beilin, “the Americans and the French need to put an end to the current situation.” He claimed that although “Hezbollah is not Lebanon,” it is an “unibanded military” and that this is the challenge we are facing.
Leave a Reply