Israel launches airstrikes near Beirut for the first time since ceasefire

Israeli forces launched airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect in November, shattering months of tension in the Lebanese capital and blew the horrors of further escalation.

The bombing came after the rocket was fired from Lebanon's territory earlier in the day in northern Israel, causing air sirens in three communities near the border. Israeli forces later ordered residents of the densely populated Hadas district of Dahiya, a region on the southern tip of Beirut, to evacuate from near the building there.

Less than two hours later, the airstrike began.

Israeli forces targeted sites that preserved Hezbollah drones, but said they did not explicitly condemn Lebanese militant groups earlier that day due to the rocket fire. Hezbollah denied his involvement in the attack on Israel, saying it continues to commit to a ceasefire.

However, this was the second such fire exchange within a week, prompting fear that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah could be lifted.

The Lebanese military said it was investigating who fired the rocket. Experts say that Hezbollah, who is still struggling to recover from a devastating 14-month conflict with Israel, has little desire to risk rekindling the conflict. However, Palestinian extremist groups such as Hamas also remain largely in Lebanon, operating primarily from refugee camps decades ago. During the war in Gaza, these groups intermittently launched rockets from Lebanon to northern Israel.

After a leading attack ignited the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones in Israeli positions in solidarity with its Palestinian allies. After almost a year of low levels of violence, the battle escalated into a full-scale war, invading Israel's ground invasion before both parties agreed to a ceasefire.

It marked Lebanon's deadliest and most destructive conflict since the country's 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

Despite the ceasefire, Israeli forces have regularly attacked southern and eastern Lebanon, but Dahiya, a traditional fortress of support for Hezbollah, has not been targeted since the ceasefire was agreed.

At least three people were killed in an airstrike that struck South Lebanon on Friday, according to Lebanon's Ministry of Health.

After Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings, the surveillance drones began crying over Beirut, and the shooting erupted in Dahiya as residents tried to warn their neighbors of an impending Israeli strike. Lebanese authorities also ordered all schools in the area to be closed, with parents rushing to gather screaming children. A student who spoke with The New York Times reported that he was ordered by the teacher to leave the window, saying that his classmates broke down in fear.

Pandemonium was reminiscent of the most intense days of the war when Israeli airstrikes routinely slammed the southern outskirts of Beirut.

“People are panicking,” said Ellie Hachem, director of St. Therese Hospital, about 600 metres from the Target building. “I can hear cars ring like crazy outside the street.”

The hospital, which was severely damaged by the war, was left unharmed by the strike, but soon the victims began to arrive at the emergency room, Hachem said.

For now, he said they're just trying to calm everyone down.

On Friday, warnings of incoming rocket fires rang out in northern Israel, including Kiriyat Simona. Israeli forces later said one of the projectiles was intercepted and the other fell into Lebanon's territory.

Lebanon's prime minister, Nawaf Salam, ordered the country's security forces to arrest the person responsible for the rocket fire, calling it “irresponsible” and “a threat to Lebanon's stability and security.”

The Lebanese government is different from Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia and political party that exerted great influence in Lebanon before the war. The new government has pledged to put all arms under state control, including Hezbollah, under state control, but it remains unclear when and how it will be done.

Lebanon's UN special coordinator, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned that “returning to a wider conflict in Lebanon is devastating,” calling for restraint.

Hwaida Saad and Dayana Iwaza contributed a report from Beirut.