Israel launched an air strike on Beirut on Friday, its first attack in the Lebanese capital since the November cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Israeli military confirmed striking a Hezbollah drone storage site in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold.
It said it carried out the strike after rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel earlier in the morning “in blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
On March 21, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had also struck Hezbollah command centers, terrorist infrastructure sites, launchers, and terrorists in southern Lebanon.
It pledged to continue operations “in order to remove any threat to the civilians of the state of Israel.”
Hezbollah denied launching the projectiles and accused Israel of seeking a pretext to continue attacking Lebanon.
The IDF warned residents of Dahiyeh, with a post on X in Arabic, to evacuate buildings there.
“You are located near facilities affiliated with Hezbollah,” the post said, alongside a map with buildings marked in red.
Chaos engulfed the area as Lebanese tried to flee, and a large smoke cloud rose over the city following the strike.
The IDF said it intercepted one of the two projectiles fired at Israel, with the other falling into Lebanese territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron protested against Israel’s bombing and said he would call U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss it.
He said there had been no activity justifying Israel’s strike.
“The framework agreed upon by Lebanon and Israel was not respected today by Israel, unilaterally, and without us having either information or proof of the triggering event,” Macron said.
He said he would call Trump “in the coming hours” and Netanyahu “in the next 48 hours” to talk about it.
After Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Hezbollah launched intensive rocket attacks on northern Israel, forcing the evacuation of as many as 100,000 Israelis in border communities.
Israel launched a ground offensive in September 2024. A cease-fire agreement in November 2024 called for Hezbollah’s military withdrawal to the north of the Litani River and the IDF from Lebanese territory by late January, a deadline extended to Feb. 18.
Only the Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping force are permitted to operate south of the Litani River.
Israel, however, maintained five positions just inside the Lebanese border after that date.
Analysts said those positions were high ground, allowing the IDF to confirm that Hezbollah was not reestablishing itself close to the border.
Israel has reserved the right to respond to any signs of Hezbollah’s presence south of the Litani River.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said Israel has carried out dozens of air and drone strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon against Hezbollah since the cease-fire began.
“Whoever has not yet internalized the new situation in Lebanon, has received an additional reminder of our determination,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his government.
“The equation has changed; what prevailed before Oct. 7 will not recur. We will not allow firing at our communities, not even a trickle.”
Israeli leaders have said they will not tolerate Hezbollah operating close to the Israeli frontier, as it did—in violation of a U.N. resolution—for two decades before Oct. 7, 2023.
