People stand next to a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Chiyah area in southern Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. Photo by Wael Hamseh/EPA-EFE
A new wave of Israeli extensive airstrikes hit Beirut, its suburbs and other Lebanese regions Tuesday, ahead of an expected cease-fire to end the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah.
A four-story building in the Basta-Nuwairi neighborhood in the heart of Beirut was targeted and destroyed without prior warning, in a second such attack on the same area since Saturday. Advertisement
The targeted building was inhabited by displaced families who fled their villages, according to media reports.
Three people were killed and 26 others were wounded in the air strike, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Rescue teams rushed to the site to evacuate the casualties and remove the rubble.
Beirut’s southern suburbs were the mostly hit after Israel carried a series of air attacks, causing powerful explosions and big cloud of smoke. Dozens of buildings were flattened.
The state-run Lebanese news agency said “a belt of fire” surrounds the southern suburbs.
The Israeli Army said it has begun “an extensive” wave of airstrikes in Beirut on Tuesday afternoon after it issued evacuation warnings to 20 buildings in the southern suburbs. Advertisement
The Army said it struck “20 Hezbollah sites within two minutes” and the “fast and extensive wave of airstrikes was carried out by eight fighter jets,” The Time of Israel reported.
It claimed that seven targeted buildings were used by Hezbollah for “the management and storage of funds, including headquarters, vaults and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, known to be used by Hezbollah as a quasi-bank.”
The other 13 sites included “a Hezbollah aerial forces center, an intelligence division command room, weapon depots, and other military infrastructure,” it added.
The Israeli claims could not be confirmed independently.
The strikes, which also targeted villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene the security cabinet and expectedly approve a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah.
