The Israeli strike on Aisha Bakkar, in Beirut, on March 11, 2026, at dawn. (Credit: Jack Doria/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Israel carried out a strike around 5 a.m. Wednesday on an apartment in Aisha Bakkar, in central Beirut. It is the second attack on central Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon on March 1.
The Israeli strike killed four people, according to a rescuer and the Internal Security Forces, who spoke to our reporter at the scene. A preliminary toll from the Health Ministry had earlier reported at least four people wounded.
Four missiles were fired at the seventh floor of a 15-story residential building. Each floor contains three apartments, according to the mukhtar. Four residents told our reporter that they had believed the targeted floor was empty.
The sixth, eighth and ninth floors were heavily damaged. The building is in the Dar al-Fatwa area, about two kilometers from downtown Beirut.
Hamas member reportedly targeted
While the Israeli army has not claimed responsibility for the attack or said who was targeted, local channel LBCI reported that the strike targeted Hamas member Ahmad Abdallah. The Palestinian movement has not yet commented on the incident.
Earlier, Israeli channel Channel 12 reported that the attack targeted an al-Jamaa al-Islamiya office, which later denied in a statement that any of its offices or members had been targeted.
"We are surprised by the haste of some media outlets in announcing that one of our administrative offices had been targeted and that several of its members had been killed without verifying the information," the group said, while also condemning "the repeated Zionist attacks against Lebanese territory."
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, which was designated a terrorist organization and sanctioned by the United States in January, has become closer to the "axis of resistance" and to Hezbollah after the Israeli war on Gaza. As part of the "support front," the group reactivated its military wing, the "Fajr Forces," and carried out symbolic operations alongside Hezbollah.
In response to this strike on a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, the general coordinator of the Future Movement, Mohammad Yamout, visited the site and called on "any party likely to be targeted to move away from populated areas." "Beirut and its inhabitants are not human shields for any party," he said, calling on the authorities to "assume their responsibilities to protect civilians and organize the situation in residential neighborhoods."
The strike indeed provoked fear amongst residents of this quiet, residential neighborhood. "I grabbed my kids without thinking and ran after hearing two or three strikes," said a father of three children, aged 1, 4 and 8, who lives in the building.
"We are in shock," he added, explaining that he fled in the middle of the night to a cousin's home in Hamra (Beirut).
Anger was also expressed by other residents. "We are hearing rumors. Some say Hamas or al-Jamaa al-Islamiya members moved into the building. If that is true, I want to bury the one who brought them here," said another resident, visibly shaken.
"We have children here!" a couple said angrily while carrying suitcases.
The strike also fueled fear among neighborhood residents. "Displaced people are everywhere now. They are putting us in danger," said a person living in Aley, whose mother was in a nearby building.
In the middle of the night on March 7, the Israeli army also carried out a naval strike on a hotel in Raouche, on Beirut’s coast, killing four Iranian nationals. Tehran acknowledged Tuesday evening that four of its “diplomats” had been killed, while the Israeli army claimed the strike killed three commanders and two agents from the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
