Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel.Baz Ratner/The Associated Press
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The residents of central Beirut were reeling Thursday in the aftermath of a devastating overnight attack by Israeli warplanes on a downtown civilian medical centre close to embassies and Lebanese government and United Nations buildings. The bustling heart of the city, well away from Hezbollah strongholds in the southern suburbs, was supposed to be safe.
The attack, which killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen, marked the first time that the urban core was hit by Israelis since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
The Israel Defence Forces’ Telegram channel did not specifically mention the attack on the Beirut clinic, though it claimed Israeli forces struck some 200 Hezbollah sites on Thursday, marking an escalation of the aerial campaign over the country as soldiers and armoured units continued their invasion of Lebanon’s southern region. On Wednesday, Israel said it had lost eight soldiers.
The vast majority of Israeli air strikes in Greater Beirut in the past couple of weeks have zeroed in on commanders and sites of Iran-backed Hezbollah in the southern suburbs, leaving residents of inner neighbourhoods feeling fairly secure.
Late Thursday night, Israel targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumoured successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the militant group’s assassinated leader, Axios reported on X, citing three Israeli officials. The fate of Mr. Safieddine, who was reportedly in an underground bunker in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, was not clear. Israel’s military declined to comment.
Earlier, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate provincial capital Nabatieh and other communities in southern Lebanon that are north of the Litani River, a UN-declared buffer zone, signalling that it may widen a ground operation launched earlier this week.
The Litani formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the Security Council after the 2006 war.
Also on Thursday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, killing at least 18 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the territory. The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force had killed a Hamas commander, the head of the group’s network in Tulkarem, in the strike. It identified him as Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.
The Oct. 3, attack destroyed the second-floor premises of a civilian health clinic operated by the Islamic Health Authority, which is funded by Hezbollah’s financial arm.Eric Reguly/The Globe and Mail
It’s very rare for Israel to use its air power against targets in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
The Tulkarem attack marked the single biggest death toll in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas almost one year ago. The conflict began with the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which killed almost 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, and has since seen more than 41,600 Palestinians killed during Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, plus more than 700 in sporadic violence in the West Bank.
U.S. President Joe Biden hinted on Thursday that he might support air strikes on Iran’s oil sites – the country holds the world’s third-largest oil reserves and exports as much as 1.8 million barrels a day – in retaliation for Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage over Israel. “We’re in discussion on that,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.
Mr. Biden’s comment sent West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, up by as much as 5.5 per cent, taking the price to US$74 a barrel, the highest level in more than a month.
Economists and analysts have in the past described rising energy prices as a vote killer. Only the day before, Mr. Biden said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Later on Thursday, he said that he will not negotiate in public when asked if he had urged Israel not to attack Iran’s oil facilities.
“I know not to negotiate in public,” Mr. Biden told reporters.
The bombing of the Beirut medical centre came one day after the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassem Brigades, claimed responsibility for a Tuesday night shooting attack in the Israeli port city of Jaffa that killed six Israelis. In a statement, the al-Qassem Brigades warned that “the coming days will carry death that will come to you from various areas of the West Bank.”
Hassan Ibrahim, an officer of the Lebanese Civil Defence, the public emergency service of Lebanon, lives close to the clinic that was struck by the Israeli missiles. “Israel does not respect international law or civilians,” he told The Globe and Mail. “We are scared because we thought we would be safe here.”
The missile strike, shortly after midnight on Thursday morning, destroyed the second-floor premises of a clinic, which was operated by the Islamic Health Authority and funded by Hezbollah’s financial arm.
“The was no warning from the Israelis before the attack,” said Kamal Znoud, general manager of the clinic. “Normally, they give us warnings before attacking.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, described Israel’s strike on the clinic as a “violation of international humanitarian law.” Seven of the nine victims worked in the clinic.
The only other attack that came close to Beirut’s downtown took place Monday, when Israeli forces killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on the fringes of the city centre. Previous attacks, including the ones that killed Mr. Nasrallah last Friday and many of his senior commanders, hit the city’s southern suburbs.
At least 28 on-duty medics were killed in 24 hours in Lebanon, the UN’s World Health Organization said on Thursday afternoon. The WHO’s Lebanon office said that all of the health care workers killed in the past day had been on duty, helping with the wounded.
“Many health workers are not reporting to duty and fled the areas where they work due to bombardments,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an online press briefing. “This is severely limiting the provision of mass-trauma management and continuity of health services.”
He said the WHO will not be able to deliver a large planned shipment of trauma and medical supplies to Lebanon on Friday because of flight restrictions. Almost all airlines stopped regular service to Beirut about two weeks ago. Middle East Airlines is still operating some flights within the Middle East and to Europe, though space is coming at a premium since several governments, including Canada’s, have blocked off thousands of seats for citizens seeking to flee the spreading war.
Israel’s destruction of the clinic occurred as intense air strikes pummelled southern Beirut. One of the biggest strikes reportedly targeted Hezbollah’s media department in Dahiyeh, in the suburbs. An official from the office said they were safe. Israel claimed the destroyed building housed Hezbollah’s intelligence-gathering operations.
The Lebanese death toll continued to rise on Thursday, with the wounded overwhelming hospitals. The country’s health ministry said that 1,964 people in Lebanon had been killed since last October, after the Hamas attack in Israel.
Among the dead in Lebanon were 127 children and 97 paramedics and firefighters, the ministry said, adding that more than 40 rescuers and firefighters had been killed in the past three days alone.
Lebanese caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said the number of people displaced in Lebanon by the war now exceeds 1.2 million, up from about 1 million only a couple of days ago. He said “We are racing against time to house them, and there are now more than 870 shelters.”
Most of the shelters are schools, which are now closed to students. The shelters are insufficient and hundreds of thousands of internal war refugees are living in their cars, in parks or in hotels commandeered by Amal, the Shia party that is close to Hezbollah’s political arm. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday launched a flash appeal to raise more than US$400-million to deal with the humanitarian crisis. Canada has so far donated $37-milllon.
Among the fatalities on Thursday was a Lebanese Army soldier, who was killed in an Israeli air strike. The army revealed on social-media site X that it had returned fire at Israeli forces, marking the first time that it had engaged Israeli soldiers.
The Lebanese Army and Israel are not at war with each other and Lebanon has made it clear that it does not want take part in the conflict. Israel has said it is only fighting Iran-sponsored Hezbollah, whose estimated 40,000 to 80,000 fighters form the world’s largest non-state fighting force.
Hezbollah rocket attacks have displaced some 60,000 Israelis from the northern part of the country, near the Lebanese border. Israel has said that its invasion of southern Lebanon is designed to clear the area of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, allowing the displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
With reports from Mark MacKinnon in Jerusalem
and from Reuters and The Associated Press
After Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, the latest barrage in a broader conflict that threatens to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war, attention is turning to Israel's assortment of missile defense systems.
The Associated Press