Israel launched airstrikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut on Tuesday for the second time in less than a week, killing at least four people and prompting fears that a fragile cease-fire could be unraveling.
The Israeli military said the strike, in the Dahiya area just south of Beirut, had targeted Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir, a member of Hezbollah and Iran’s elite Quds Force, who had directed and assisted Hamas in planning a “significant and imminent” attack against Israel. It did not provide further details. Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the overnight strike.
The airstrikes, which came without an evacuation warning, killed at least four people and wounded several others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said the attack was a “clear breach” of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah that was agreed to in November. The truce halted Lebanon’s deadliest war in decades, but a recent uptick in violence and tension has stoked concerns of a creeping escalation.
Despite the truce, Israel has repeatedly attacked purported Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, while the militant group has so far refrained from responding. Experts say that Hezbollah, battered by the 14-month war with Israel, has little impetus to risk sparking another conflict while it struggles to recover.
But Palestinian armed groups like Hamas — a key ally of Hezbollah — also maintain a sizable presence in Lebanon, operating mostly from decades-old refugee camps. During the war in Gaza, these groups intermittently launched rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel.
“We expect the Lebanese government to act against the terrorist elements that operate from their territory,” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said at a briefing on Tuesday. “We see cooperation between Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah on Lebanese soil.”
On Friday, the Israeli military also launched airstrikes in the Dahiya after telling residents in a densely populated neighborhood there to evacuate. It was the first time since the cease-fire that the Lebanese capital had been targeted. The attack came hours after rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah denied any involvement in that attack on Israel and said that it remained committed to the cease-fire. The Israeli military said it had targeted a site that stored Hezbollah’s drones; it also attacked targets in southern Lebanon in response to the rocket fire, killing three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israeli positions in solidarity with Hamas after that group led an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. After nearly a year of low-level fighting, the violence escalated into full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, killing nearly 4,000 people and leaving swaths of Lebanon in ruins.
It was Lebanon’s deadliest and most destructive conflict since the country’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.