Seven dead in Israeli air strike on central Beirut

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An Israeli air strike killed at least seven people in a medical facility in the heart of Beirut in the early hours of Thursday, in the deepest assault on the capital since fighting began.

The strike hit close to Lebanon’s parliament building in a densely populated neighbourhood far from the capital’s southern suburbs, which Israel has pummelled over the past two weeks.

The medical facility was linked to Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah, and the bombing killed seven emergency responders and paramedics, the group said, and wounded several others.

The Israeli military said it had launched a “precise strike” but did not disclose its target. Several air strikes were also reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel has stepped up its offensive against Hizbollah in recent days, as the region braces for its retaliation to an Iranian missile barrage on Tuesday that intensified fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.

Iran said its missile attack on Israel was in response to the assassination of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week and the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

The US has said Israel has the right to respond, although US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that any retaliation should be “in proportion” and that he was opposed to attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Israel has also launched a land offensive into southern Lebanon. On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said that eight soldiers were killed and several injured in clashes with Hizbollah militants inside Lebanon.

In recent weeks, the IDF has launched regular, devastating strikes on the densely populated southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hizbollah has a major presence.

It had previously only targeted one site within the city limits during the current conflict, killing three Palestinian militant group leaders in the early hours of Monday in an apparent drone strike that destroyed one floor of an apartment building.

Israel’s bombing campaign against what it says are Hizbollah targets across Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people in the country in the past two weeks, according to the Lebanese authorities. They said that 46 people had been killed and 85 wounded over the past 24 hours.

In the early hours of Thursday, a large blast was heard in Beirut, with footage from the scene showing smoke rising over the night-time skyline. Footage from Lebanese news outlets showed the blast had also damaged a cemetery.

“Another sleepless night in Beirut. Counting the blasts shaking the city. No warning sirens. Not knowing what’s next. Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent,” said Jeanine Hennis, the UN special co-ordinator in Lebanon, on X.

Lebanon’s National News Agency also said 17 Israeli bombing raids had taken place in neighbourhoods in southern Beirut.

Beyond its militant activities, Hizbollah has a political party and a sprawling network of social services that runs parallel to state institutions. These include schools, social welfare organisations and healthcare facilities such as the one struck on Thursday.

Additional reporting by Ahmed Al Omran in Jeddah