Screenshot from a video taken at the site of the airstrike on Basta, on Nov. 23, 2024.
This is a developing story.
BEIRUT -- At least 12 people were killed and 23 wounded in an Israeli strike on central Beirut overnight, Lebanon's Civil Defense said on Saturday.
Israeli jets fired five missiles at an eight-story residential building in the central Beirut neighborhood of Basta at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, leveling the building and leaving a crater in its place. Like all of Israel's attacks against Beirut proper during this conflict, there was no prior evacuation warning.
The explosions were heard throughout the capital and soon dozens of first responders were on the scene, on Basta's Maamoun Street. The number of casualties is likely to rise considering the significant damage and the ongoing efforts to sort through the rubble.
There is speculation across several local news outlets that the munitions used by Israel were the same "bunker buster" bombs it used to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Saffiedine.
These 2,000-pound bombs were withheld from U.S. shipments of arms to Israel starting in May out of concern from the Biden administration that they would be used in civilian areas.
The bombing took place in the same area as an Israeli strike that targeted Basta on Oct. 10, when Israeli jets bombed Basta and Ras al-Nabaa nearly simultaneously, killing 22 people, wounding over 100 and leveling another building in Basta.
