New Israeli airstrike hits Beirut as mass destruction reported in Lebanon’s ancient city of Tyre
Israeli officials have been calling on Tel Aviv to resume attacks on the capital in response to Hezbollah’s deadly FPV strikes
Israel bombed the Lebanese capital on 28 May for the first time in weeks, marking the second attack on Beirut since the so-called ceasefire, coinciding with an unprecedented escalation against south Lebanon.
The attack hit a building in the Choueifat area of Beirut’s southern suburb. Video footage showed large clouds of smoke over the neighborhood.
“The target of the Israeli strike in the Beirut area a short while ago is Ali al-Husni, the head of the missile force in the Imam Hossein Division, an Iranian militia that operates alongside Hezbollah,” the Times of Israel's military correspondent claimed.
According to Hebrew reports, the new strike on Beirut was approved by Washington. The US has reportedly given Israel permission to carry out only “targeted” air raids on the capital. The last strike on the Beirut suburb took place in early May.
Hezbollah has yet to comment on the strike.
Meanwhile, brutal and deadly Israeli airstrikes have caused massive destruction across southern Lebanon’s Tyre (Sur) and elsewhere since Tel Aviv’s latest forced displacement orders hit the entirety of south Lebanon.
Footage circulating on social media on Thursday showed the scale of the destruction, with entire neighborhoods flattened.
Mass displacement has intensified since displacement orders were issued against Tyre and the surrounding Palestinian refugee camps and neighborhoods.
Airstrikes on the more than 4,000-year-old city persisted into Thursday after a massive bombing campaign the night before. At least a dozen airstrikes have targeted Tyre since then.
Al-Mansouri and Al-Ramadiyeh in the Tyre district also came under bombardment on Thursday.
The rest of the south is under heavy Israeli fire as well, while Israeli forces are attempting to expand ground raids deeper beyond their so-called “Forward Defense Line.”
The strikes are being described as the heaviest since the start of the latest war in early March. At least 16 people have been killed since Wednesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.
Around 60 others have been wounded.
Additionally, Israel has killed three Lebanese soldiers within 24 hours, including Sergeant Alaa Mahmoud Medlej. He was killed on Thursday in an Israeli attack on the Zefta–Deir al-Zahrani road in southern Lebanon.
The escalation is a response to the Lebanese resistance’s campaign of fiber-optic FPV drone attacks, which have inflicted heavy losses on occupation troops in south Lebanon and Israeli forces in bases and settlements on the border.
Hezbollah fighters are also waging a fierce campaign on the ground aimed at preventing the Israeli army from expanding its occupation of the south.
Both the Israeli opposition and members of the ruling coalition are urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand strikes on the Lebanese capital.
“For every explosive drone, 10 buildings in Beirut should fall,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this week.