Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
A series of Israeli strikes hit central Beirut late on October 10, targeting a senior Hezbollah member in previously untouched neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital.
The strikes targeted an eight-story residential building on the edge of the al-Nuwairi and Ras el-Nabaa neighborhoods. Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah’s Liason and Coordination Unit chief, who was the target of the strikes, reportedly managed to survive. There were no comment from the Israeli military.
At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 others were injured in the strikes, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, although a Lebanese medical source estimated that the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue operations continued.
A second building located in the nearby Basta neighborhood was also targeted, just a few minutes after the first wave of strikes.
Neither al-Nuwairi, Ras el-Nabaa or Basta were previously targeted by Israel during its ongoing confrontation with Hezbollah.
Safa oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for all remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israel. He was sanctioned in 2019 by the United States Treasury Department, which described him as Hezbollah’s interlocutor to the Lebanese security forces.
The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border first broke out after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, with Hezbollah launching attacks in support of the Palestinian enclave. Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon starting from September 17 and on September 27 it assassinated the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nassrallah.
The IDF officially announced the launch of a limited ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on September 30.
Overall, the confrontation has so far resulted in 28 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as the deaths of at least 34 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, more than 2,100 people have been killed, including more than 500 members of Hezbollah.
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assassination attempt? zionist war crimes, leaving 22 dead, that’s the truth, all this with yankee support, and the blessing of european bums, unfortunately the people at southfront don’t know how to report things the right way.
get a life other than supporting terrorism.