An Israeli airstrike in central Beirut killed at least 29 people and injured 67 others on Saturday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said.
The Hezbollah terrorist group fired 250 projectiles into Israel on Nov. 24, injuring residents, following an Israeli airstrike the previous day that killed at least 29 people in Beirut, Lebanon.
In a Nov. 24 social media post, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
said “millions of civilians” were hiding in shelters due to the rockets fired from Lebanon.
IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that houses were left “in flames and ruins” after a direct hit on the central city of Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, on Sunday.
“No country would tolerate this aggression. The IDF will continue to defend our civilians and respond to these attacks,” Shoshani
wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service,
reported treating two injured residents in Petah Tikva. At least three other people were injured in Haifa region, it
stated.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said that it launched “a drone swarm attack” on the IDF’s Ashdod Naval Base “for the first time” on Sunday, adding that the target was hit “with precision.”
The group also claimed to have launched “a salvo of advanced missiles and a squadron of attack” on a military site in Tel Aviv on the same day, according to a
statement carried by Hezbollah’s media outlet.
The Israeli military also struck several Hezbollah command centers in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on Sunday, which the IDF said were “deliberately embedded” between civilian areas. The IDF said it issued warnings to residents before launching the strikes.
Before the attack, the IDF said it struck 12 Hezbollah command centers in Dahieh. The IDF said the centers were used by Hezbollah to “plan, command, and execute terrorist attacks” against Israel.
Lebanon on ‘Brink of Collapse’
At least 29 people were killed and 67 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Basta al-Fawqa area in central Beirut on Saturday,
according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
The IDF did not comment on Saturday’s strike in the Lebanese capital or say what it had attacked.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati
condemned the Israeli airstrike in a social media post as “a direct bloody message that rejects all efforts to reach a cease-fire.”
Mikati met with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Beirut on Sunday. Mikati
said he stressed the need for a cease-fire in Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in Beirut on Sunday, Borrell
said that Lebanon is “on the brink of collapse” and called for an immediate cease-fire by all parties.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the U.S. proposal for a cease-fire,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz
said on Nov. 20 that conditions for any settlement would include “preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [Israeli military’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”
Dan Berger contributed to this report.
