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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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s elite Quds Force, who had directed and assisted Hamas in planning a \u201csignificant and imminent\u201d attack against Israel. It did not provide further details. Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the overnight strike.<\/p>\n
The airstrikes, which came without an evacuation warning, killed at least four people and wounded several others, according to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said the attack was a \u201cclear breach\u201d of a cease-fire deal<\/a> between Israel and Hezbollah that was agreed to in November. The truce halted Lebanon\u2019s deadliest war in decades, but a recent uptick in violence and tension has stoked concerns of a creeping escalation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n But Palestinian armed groups like Hamas \u2014 a key ally of Hezbollah \u2014 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect the Lebanese government to act against the terrorist elements that operate from their territory,\u201d Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, said at a briefing on Tuesday. \u201cWe see cooperation between Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah on Lebanese soil.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, the Israeli military also launched airstrikes in the Dahiya<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s drones; it also attacked targets in southern Lebanon in response to the rocket fire, killing three people, according to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n It was Lebanon\u2019s deadliest and most destructive<\/a> conflict since the country\u2019s 15-year civil war ended in 1990.<\/p>\n Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n