Palestinian militant group Hamas said an Israeli airstrike killed its leader in Lebanon on Monday.
Hamas said Fatah Sharif and his family were killed in the attack on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre.
Over the past week, Israel has frequently targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a strong presence – including a major strike on Friday that killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
But on Monday, the first apparent Israeli airstrike on central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict flattened a building.
Houssam Shbaro / Anadolu via Getty Images
This came after Israel struck targets across Lebanon in recent days and killed dozens of people, with Hezbollah suffering severe blows to its command structure, including the death of Nasrallah.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
The airstrike hit a multi-story residential building in central Beirut, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood with a busy thoroughfare lined with stores.
The airstrike killed at least one person and injured 16 others, a Lebanese Civil Defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the person killed was a member of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or Islamic Group, a Sunni political and militant group allied with Hezbollah.
A left-wing Palestinian faction in Lebanon said three of its members were killed in the airstrike. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement Monday that its military and security commanders in Lebanon and a third member were killed in the attack.
Houssam Shbaro / Anadolu via Getty Images
Neither militant group has played a significant role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, deputy head of its Central Council, was killed on Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include the group’s founding members who had escaped death or detention for decades.
Hezbollah also confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including a Nasrallah security official.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 105 people were killed across the country in airstrikes on Sunday. Two strikes near the southern town of Sidon, about 45 km south of Beirut, killed at least 32 people, the ministry said. Separately, Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa as well as the south, in addition to strikes on Beirut. Israel says it is targeting militants, but the strikes have hit buildings where civilians were living and the death toll is expected to rise further.
In a video of a strike in Saida, verified by the AP, a building toppled before collapsing as neighbors filmed. A TV channel called on viewers to pray for a family trapped under the rubble, publishing their photos as rescuers failed to reach them. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that at least 14 doctors were killed in two days in the south.
President Biden said Sunday he will speak soon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and believes all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided. “It has to be,” Mr. Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, as he boarded Air Force One to fly to Washington.
Biden says Nasrallah’s death a ‘measure of justice’
On Saturday, Mr. Biden said Nasrallahdeath in the Israeli airstrike was a “measure of justice” for his many victims.
In a statement released by the White House, Mr. Biden said. “Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, killed hundreds of Americans during a four-decade reign of terror,” including thousands of Israeli and Lebanese civilians.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure, but he warned that the group would work quickly to rebuild it.
“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they’re going to try to recover. We’re watching what they do to try to fill that leadership void. It’s going to be difficult. … A lot of their command structure has now been wiped out.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kirby sidestepped questions about whether the Biden administration agrees with the way the Israelis are targeting Hezbollah leaders. The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to accept a temporary 21-day ceasefire proposed by the United States, France and other countries at the United Nations General Assembly last week.
Meanwhile, the rubble from Friday’s attack that claimed Nasrallah’s life still smoldered. Smoke rose from the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check what remained of their homes and others to pay respects, pray or simply witness the destruction.
In response to the dramatic escalation of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah has significantly increased its rocket attacks over the past week, from several dozen to several hundred per day, the Israeli military said. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems or fell in open areas.
The army says its strikes degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities and that the number of shots fired would have been much higher if Hezbollah had not been hit.
Israel claims to have struck Houthi targets
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said dozens of its planes struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack. The army said it targeted power plants and port facilities in the city of Hodeida.
The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday upon Netanyahu’s arrival. The Houthi media office said the Israeli strikes hit the ports of Hodeida and Rass Issa, as well as two power plants in Hodeida city, a stronghold of the Iran-backed rebels. The Houthi-led health ministry said the strikes killed four people and injured 40 others.
The Houthis claimed to have taken precautionary measures before the strikes, emptying oil stored in ports, according to Nasruddin Ammer, deputy director of the Houthis’ press office. He said in an article on X that the strikes will not stop rebel attacks on sea routes and against Israel.
A wave of Israeli airstrikes across much of Lebanon has killed more than 1,030 people, including 156 women and 87 children, in less than two weeks, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes. The government estimates that around 250,000 people are in shelters, and three to four times as many of them are staying with friends or relatives, or camping on the streets.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group and political party, Israel’s main regional rival, gained regional prominence after waging a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006 that ended in a null.
Kaouk was a veteran member of Hezbollah since the 1980s and served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel after Hamas attack on October 7 from Gaza started the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies who see themselves as part of an “Axis of Resistance” against Israel backed by Iran.
The conflict has gradually escalated to the brink of all-out war, raising fears of a regional-scale conflagration.
Israel says it is determined to return some 60,000 of its citizens to northern communities that were evacuated almost a year ago. Hezbollah has said it will only stop its rocket attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which has proved elusive despite months of indirect state-led negotiations between Israel and Hamas. -United States, Qatar and Egypt.
