Overnight, massive explosions shook the southern neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital, sending smoke columns into the skyline. Residents of Beirut reported that buildings shook and car alarms went off due to the intensive bombing by Israeli fighter jets hitting the heavily populated areas, particularly the area surrounding the international airport.
According to a source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization, Israel launched 11 straight attacks on Beirut in what is seen to be its most violent assault to date.
This information was provided to the AFP news agency. Hezbollah has not responded, and the Israeli military has not released an official statement. The target of the airstrikes, according to Israeli media, was Hashem Safieddine, a probable successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who was killed in an Israeli bombing last week.
Israel’s military said on Friday that it had eliminated the head of Hezbollah’s communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, by conducting a “precise, intelligence-based strike” in Beirut on Thursday. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on Safaki’s fate.
In a second attack, the Israeli military also struck Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, cutting off a road that hundreds of thousands of refugees had been using to escape Israeli shelling in recent days.
According to Lebanese government figures, approximately 300,000 people, the majority of whom are Syrians, crossed into Syria from Lebanon during the past ten days in order to flee the intensifying Israeli assault. According to Ali Hamieh, Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, the strike occurred inside Lebanese territory close to the border crossing, leaving a crater four meters (12 feet) wide.