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Recap: Central Beirut targeted by Israeli strikes, 22 dead and over 100 injured

Beirut's Basta and Ras al-Nabaa neighborhoods were hit simultaneously, shortly before 8 p.m. on Thursday evening. Israel was reportedly targeting senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, who al-Manar says survived.

Recap: Central Beirut targeted by Israeli strikes, 22 dead and over 100 injured

Residents and first responders at the scene of an Israeli strike on central Beirut, on Oct. 10, 2024. (Credit: Photo sent to L'Orient Today by residents)


Read our live coverage of day 370 of the Gaza and Lebanon wars here

22 killed and nearly 120 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut: Day 370 of the Gaza and Lebanon wars

BEIRUT — For the third time since the sudden intensification of its bombardments against Lebanon, the Israeli army targeted Beirut proper, in two simultaneous attacks: one on the city's Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood and another on the nearby Basta neighborhood. Israeli media reported that the army was targeting the head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit, Wafiq Safa, although the army itself has yet to release a statement on the matter.

The Hezbollah-affiliated news channel al-Manar reported two hours later that the assassination attempt had failed and Safa was still alive. The Israeli strike killed instead 22 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and injured over 100. Footage from the site of the strike in Basta show at least one building collapsed and rescue workers digging through a hill of rubble in search of buried victims.

The two densely populated residential neighborhoods did not receive any evacuation warnings from the Israeli army, which has been mostly focusing its attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa, where Hezbollah's presence is most prominent. Shortly before the strikes, the army did however release a warning for two sites in the southern suburbs.

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The Basta neighborhood is adjacent to Bashoura, where an Israeli strike hit a medical center last week belonging to the Islamic Health Committee, Hebollah's medical wing, and killing nine paramedics.

Just this morning, the White House released a statement saying that U.S. President Joe Biden had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call to "minimize" harm to civilians in its military operations in Lebanon.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. and France presented a joint proposal for an immediate 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, but the next day, Israel announced it had secured an additional $8.7 billion in military aid from the Biden administration.

Following the deadly strikes on Beirut, France's representative to the U.N. reiterated that the cease-fire is "still on the table," and that his country "calls for an immediate cease-fire."

Rescue services and residents looked for survivors in amid the rubble of the Israeli strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, Oct. 10, 2024. (Credit: AFP)

Netanyahu had initially agreed to the proposal, before changing his mind en route to speak to the U.N. two weeks ago, Haaretz reported. Hebollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had also agreed to the proposal, the Lebanese foreign minister says. However, shortly before taking the podium at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Netanyahu authorized the massive bombing attack that would kill Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Concerning respiratory symptoms

Abbas Baalbaki, a researcher at AUB specializing in hazardous material, visited the site of the Israeli strike on Beirut's Basta neighborhood around half an hour after the attack and noted a significant number of people displaying severe respiratory symptoms.

About 200 meters from the building that was hit, he started to see people covering their faces and coughing fiercely. "Maybe the pressure affected their lungs, maybe they breathed in too much dust, but the thing is, these people had relatively clean clothes," Baalbaki told L'Orient Today. If they had been closer to the explosion, he explained, they would have been covered in dust, "white from top to bottom," like those he saw further in.

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Explosions like this create particulate matter that can measure 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, meaning its so fine that it will reach deep into the lungs and be absorbed into the blood, Baalbaki said. Residue, as well as explosives and heavy metals from the missiles are blasted into particles and spread outward from the site of a bombing.

"Maybe the building is really old or maybe there was a store in the building selling paint or household chemicals, or maybe the higher number of cases is because there were more people." But, what will be important to note, is whether, tomorrow morning, in the aftermath of the attack, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and paramedics report unusual respiratory symptoms in the patients brought in for treatment.

The Israeli army has killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon since fighting began last October, with more than half of those killed in the last three weeks alone. According to Lebanese authorities, around 1.5 million people have been displaced.

Read our live coverage of day 370 of the Gaza and Lebanon wars here 22 killed and nearly 120 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut: Day 370 of the Gaza and Lebanon wars BEIRUT — For the third time since the sudden intensification of its bombardments against Lebanon, the Israeli army targeted Beirut proper, in two simultaneous attacks: one on the city's Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood and another...