At least 23 people were killed and 93 others were reportedly injured after Israel carried out several strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday and overnight into Sunday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The IDF stated that it launched a series of targeted strikes against several Hezbollah weapons storage facilities. Israel said that these strikes were intended to target the militant group and ensure the safe return of its citizens northward, where rocket fire from southern Lebanon increased over the past year.
The current military operations have ravaged the neighborhood of Dahieh, a bastion for Hezbollah south of Beirut, with an Israeli missile strike about a week ago razing six residential buildings and killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
According to local TV channels, witnesses and analysts stated that the recent strike marked the single biggest attack by Israel on Beirut thus far.
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In a post on X, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, “We began this year from a difficult and painful point, but we regained our composure, advanced forward to fight, and grew stronger. From this combat, a generation of warriors and commanders has emerged with unparalleled combat experience and unwavering courage, leading the IDF in one of the most complex wars we have known.”
“We began this year from a difficult and painful point, but we regained our composure, advanced forward to fight and grew stronger. From this combat, a generation of warriors and commanders has emerged with unparalleled combat experience and unwavering courage, leading the IDF in…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 6, 2024
Videos posted on social media, which Reuters could not verify, showed damage to the highway connecting Beirut’s airport with its southern suburbs and downtown area.
BBC arrived at the site of Dr. Diab’s clinic on Sunday morning, but the target building had vanished and was replaced by a smoking crater 9 meters (30 feet) deep, filled with twisted metal and mangled family possessions.
No death was reported from this strike but the clinic was destroyed. The 57-year-old gynac Dr. Diab who treated hundreds of women in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh, studied the image her daughter sent her.
She immediately recognised the building next door to her clinic, and began to cry.
She said, “After 30 years of work, I knew my clinic was going be destroyed.”
“I felt like my heart was going to explode.”
Today marks the first anniversary of the October 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel.
(With BBC Inputs)
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