Israel just bombed a residential neighbourhood in Beirut, in a major escalation

Israel has launched a deadly airstrike deep inside Beirut’s southern suburb, killing at least one person and injuring 21, in what Lebanese officials and observers are calling a massive escalation — and a blatant violation of the already-shredded ceasefire agreement:

Yet another violation as Israel bombs Beirut

According to UNIFIL, Israel has already racked up around 3,000 ceasefire violations since last year’s agreement.

Today’s strike in Beirut, just three days before the one-year anniversary, shatters any pretence of restraint or of respect to treaties they themselves signed.

On Lebanese social media, many had half-jokingly been warning this would happen the second Pope Leo left the country. Leo was scheduled to end his visit on 30 November — and sure enough, Israel didn’t even wait for him to arrive:

Mohamad Kleit, our correspondent in Lebanon and contributing writer at the Canary, was just a minute’s walk from the impact site in Beirut. He reports:

The blast ripped through a densely populated residential street, killing at least one person and injuring 21, according to the Ministry of Health. The casualty toll is likely to rise given the nature of the neighbourhood: packed apartment blocks, narrow alleyways, and shops that are usually buzzing on a Sunday afternoon. Among the injured is a woman in her 40s who was violently thrown off her balcony by the force of the explosion and is now in critical condition in hospital. Four buildings were damaged in total — including the primary targeted building — and the strike blew apart two apartments from both the main street and the adjacent alleyway.

Kleit stressed that:

This is a strictly residential area, home to a public library, cafés, clothing shops, restaurants, several mini-markets and even a small mechanic’s garage — not a military hub by any stretch of the imagination.

Israel has claimed the target in Beirut was Haitham Tabtabai, but it said it is still not sure that the assassination was successful. A chilling statement as Kleit says that the “sound of rushing ambulances doesn’t seem to stop.”

Kleit confirmed that there was absolutely no combat activity, nor was the area remotely close to any active frontline. The location is over 100 kilometres from the border, he added, making this a crystal-clear violation of both the ceasefire agreement and international law. He narrowly escaped harm — he was just a minute’s walk away when the bombs hit.

The Canary understands that Israel fired four missiles at the building – with one still remaining unexploded:

The wider picture

Israel didn’t ‘accidentally’ hit a civilian zone in Beirut. It flew over a hundred kilometres into a residential capital district and dropped explosives on families, shoppers, and people out for Sunday coffee. This is not ‘security.’ This is not ‘precision.’

Israeli drones circle Beirut all day, everyday. They know exactly who and what exists in these buildings. Every civilian casualty that fell was on purpose. There were no mistakes. Just terror. Raw, sheer, colonial terror.

This is a message — and that message is escalation.

If Israel wanted to show the world that ceasefires mean nothing and civilians mean even less, it succeeded.

More updates to come as the situation develops.

Featured image and additional images via the Canary