Photo of one of the Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on the night of Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/OLJ)
The Israeli army carried out more than ten strikes, including several particularly powerful ones, on the southern suburbs of Beirut between 2:00 and 4:30 a.m in what it said were a response to a Hezbollah attack that killed seven in northern Israel earlier on Thursday.
Israel issued its threat at 10:40 p.m. and the heavy bombardment of Nabatieh followed soon after.
Intense explosions could be heard in Beirut – the first since last Sunday – accompanied by thick plumes of smoke and the sound of drones flying over the capital. The affected neighborhoods included Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik, Ghobeiry, Tahouita al-Ghadir (near Beirut airport), and Roueis. The drones' buzzing was audible in the skies over Beirut and its surroundings before, during, and after the strikes.
The Israeli air force also struck an apartment in the Aley region during the night, killing three people.
On Thursday, seven civilians were killed in northern Israel. Five of them, including four Thai farm workers, were killed in a rocket attack on Metula, a town on the Israeli side of the border that is adjacent to the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa confirmed his citizens' deaths on X.
The fifth person was a local farmer. The other two victims were killed near the city of Haifa, while the Israeli army said about 90 rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon on Thursday. "Hezbollah rockets killed seven innocent civilians," the Israeli army said on X in the evening. "Hezbollah's deadly attacks will not go unanswered."
The constant sound of drones
The warning came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. pressure to reach a cease-fire with Hezbollah on Thursday afternoon, during a meeting with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who is shuttling to hold talks, and an adviser to Joe Biden.
“Any ceasefire with Hezbollah must first and foremost ensure Israel’s security,” Netanyahu said. This was despite 24 hours of optimism — linked in particular to political considerations before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 — and the leak to the Israeli media of a U.S. cease-fire proposal.
Shortly before this Israeli warning, and while Israeli drones were flying at low altitudes all evening over many regions of Lebanon, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, called on the residents of Nabatieh to evacuate their homes.
Anyone found “in or near buildings used by Hezbollah to store weapons” in this city was called upon to leave the area “immediately” without specifying a location or specific buildings.
Nearly two hours later, bombings targeted the “Rahbet” neighborhood, an area near Shukin and the outskirts of the city’s vocational school and evangelical school. Other bombings hit the city, but it was not possible to determine precisely where, due to the thickness of the smoke rising in the area.
Three dead in Aley
Further north, an apartment in the town of Ain al-Remmaneh, located between Qmatiye and Aley was hit by an Israeli bombing. According to the report published Friday morning by the Lebanese Ministry of Health, this raid left three dead and five injured.
Qmatiye has been targeted several times since the start of the expanded Israeli offensive on Lebanon on September 23. A targeted strike hit a car in the town on Wednesday, while several other vehicles have been targeted by drone strikes in the area, including one in Araya, about three kilometers away, on several occasions this week.
Calls to evacuate
About 30 minutes before the Israeli army conducted its first strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, at 1:35 a.m., the Israeli army's Arabic spokesperson asked residents of certain buildings in Burj al-Barajneh, Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik to evacuate.
The affected buildings were identified on maps published by Adraee on his X account: The first was opposite the Abbas Mosque in Ghobeiry, the second was between the ‘Grand Bazaar Outlet’ and Saint Joseph Church in Haret Hreik, a third was opposite the Coral - Dalal Haddad station in Burj al-Barajneh and a fourth was behind the Civil Defense in Haret Hreik.
Just before 3 a.m., Avichay Adraee issued further evacuation orders for buildings in Haret Hreik, Tahouita al-Ghadir, Ghobeiry, and Burj al-Barajneh. One building is located just behind the Lycee de la Finesse in Haret Hreik, another across from the University of Science and Arts in Ghobeiry, and a third at the Imam Hussein roundabout in Burj al-Barajneh. In Tahouita al-Ghadir, a building between Charity College and Rimal Supermarket was also included.
Another five orders were issued at around 3:00 a.m., much later than the time at which residents of the threatened neighborhoods were called to leave the premises in recent weeks. To wake up the people still present in the southern suburbs and force them to leave, local residents fired into the air, according to local media.
Al-Jadeed broadcast a video on its X account showing people appearing to evacuate their homes around the airport bridge.
According to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), "dozens of buildings collapsed" and fires broke out in several places.
'Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites'
The Israeli army said it targeted "weapons manufacturing sites and Hezbollah headquarters" in its multiple strikes in Beirut and Nabatieh overnight. In Nabatieh, the air force also bombed the "intelligence infrastructure" of the party, according to a message published on X by the military spokesperson.
Commenting on these multiple nighttime bombardments on Friday morning, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that this "expansion" of strikes by Israel signaled "its refusal of all efforts deployed for a cease-fire."
Since the beginning of the war, which started with limited exchanges in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, 2,867 people have been killed, and another 13,047 injured, according to the latest official figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health published Thursday evening.