Residents in front of damaged cars near an apartment destroyed by an Israeli strike in the Aramoun area, Aley, south of Beirut, Nov. 13, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Aramoun, in the district of Aley (Mount Lebanon), woke up in shock on Wednesday morning. Previously spared by Israeli strikes, this predominantly Druze and Christian village, located between Khalde and Bshamoun, suffered a violent night raid at 4 a.m. on a residential building in the al-Bayader district, near the Attar supermarket.
An initial official report on the deadly strike, which was carried out without any evacuation notice and almost completely destroyed three of the building's four floors, said that six people were killed and 15 injured. The Health Ministry said that human remains had been found and were currently being analyzed. Appeals for blood donations were made on social networks and addressed to the hospital in Bshamoun, as the village has no hospitals.
'All regions now affected'
This strike in the Aley district, southeast of Beirut, follows deadly raids in this region, in Keyfoun and Qmatieh on Oct. 6, which killed 12 people, and Tuesday's strike between Abadieh and Baalshmey, which killed at least five people according to the Health Ministry.
A senior source in the Internal Security Forces (ISF) said that “Israel targets displaced people wherever they are, regardless of the damage,” and lamented that Israeli strikes on suspected Hezbollah members are carried out without regard to collateral damage, noting an increasing number of children killed in raids on residential buildings.
Israel is continuing its escalation, striking heavily in Beirut's southern suburbs in the mornings for the past two days, and beginning the “second phase” of its ground offensive in southern Lebanon, according to press reports.
