Israel Strikes Hezbollah Operative In Beirut, Kills 3

An Israeli strike on Beirut killed at least three people on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said after Israel announced its second strike on the country’s capital in a fragile four-month truce.

Israel’s military said it “targeted a Hezbollah terrorist” just days after striking the city in response to rocket fire from Lebanon which it blamed on the militant group.

The raid in Hezbollah’s Dahieh stronghold left “three martyrs and seven wounded” according to a Lebanese health ministry toll, quoted by Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The top two floors of a multi-storey building were destroyed by the strike, an AFP photographer at the scene said, while panicked residents poured out of their homes.

The photographer saw at least three wounded people being helped by rescue workers and debris covering a street.

Israel’s military said the unnamed militant “had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians”.

It “acted to eliminate him and removed the threat”, the military said in a joint statement with the domestic Shin Bet security agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the country’s military would “strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat” in response to the rocket fire.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023 in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Saturday condemned the resumption of Israeli strikes on the city.

“This aggression must end. We cannot allow this to continue,” Qassem said in a televised address.

Israel’s military said Friday two “projectiles” were fired towards Israel, with one intercepted and the other falling inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah denied involvement in the rocket fire.

But Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Lebanon’s “government bears direct responsibility for any fire toward the Galilee” and if it does not enforce the ceasefire, “we will enforce it”.

Lebanon’s military later said it had identified the site of the rocket launch, just north of the Litani River, and was trying to identify the perpetrators.

Israel has continued to carry out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon in the months since the ceasefire, hitting what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic”.

The agreement also required Hezbollah to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south as the Israeli military pulled back.