Israeli jets strike Beirut’s southern suburbs for third time since ceasefire

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli jets struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Sunday after issuing a warning about an hour earlier, marking the third Israeli strike on the area since a ceasefire took effect in late November.

A huge plume of smoke billowed over the area after the strike. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the warning, the Israeli military said that it was targeting Hezbollah facilities in the Hadath area and urged residents to move at least 300 meters from the site before the strike. Two warning strikes followed.

Fighter jets were heard over parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Al-Jamous neighborhood, where gunfire was shot into the air to warn residents and urge them to evacuate, as families fled in panic.

During the last Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli drones and fighter jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel views the area, where it has assassinated several of Hezbollah’s top leaders, including chief Hassan Nasrallah, as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there.

Sunday’s strike follows two earlier attacks on the capital’s southern suburbs, the first taking place on March 28, when Israel also issued a warning, and the second on April 1, when an unannounced strike killed four people, including a Hezbollah official.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, has recently warned that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanon’s government doesn’t act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.

Kassem also said that Hezbollah’s fighters won’t disarm as long as Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon and the Israeli air force regularly violates Lebanese airspace.

Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.

Earlier on Sunday, a drone strike killed a man in the southern Lebanese village of Halta, according to the Health Ministry. In a post on X that included footage of the strike, the Israeli military said that it had targeted a Hezbollah member, “where he was working to rebuild Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities in the area.”

Israel’s near-daily airstrikes have killed scores of people, including civilians and Hezbollah members, in southern and eastern Lebanon since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect, saying it targets Hezbollah officials and infrastructure. Israel says it’s targeting Hezbollah holdouts in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the country’s southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory.