A building in Tayoune, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, collapses after being targeted by an Israeli strike. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine / L'Orient-Le Jour)
A floor of a residential building located near the Tayyouneh roundabout, in Beirut's southern suburbs, collapsed Tuesday afternoon. According to the Civil Defense on site, the collapse was due to severe structural cracks caused by Israeli strikes that occurred during the recent war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel.
Civil Defense teams quickly intervened to evacuate the residents of the affected building as well as those of adjacent buildings as a precaution against potential additional collapses. No injuries have been reported so far.
This area in the northern part of Beirut's southern suburbs, in the Chiyah neighborhood, was targeted by several Israeli bombings in November 2024. On November 14, a 900-kilo bomb known as a "bunker-buster" was dropped on an 11-story building, causing its immediate collapse. Earlier, on October 31st, a Spice 2000 missile destroyed a ten-story building in the same area.
This incident reignites concerns about the safety of structures in several neighborhoods in Beirut's southern suburbs. Preliminary engineering reports suggest that some structural damages may not be immediately visible, thereby increasing risks for residents.
The destruction of roughly 269,000 housing units, or 16 percent of the Lebanese real estate portfolio, has resulted in the accumulation of a total of at least 32 million tons of debris in Lebanon, far more than the six million generated by the previous war in 2006, according to a preliminary assessment by CNRS-Liban dated December 2024.