Israel strikes Choueifat ahead of crucial talks in Washington
Israel's air force carried out an airstrike on the Choueifat area on the edge of Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military said, further straining a fragile ceasefire a day ahead of crucial negotiations in Washington.
The strike hit an apartment building. Videos from Choueifat, close to Beirut's international airport, showed white smoke billowing from a residential neighborhood.
Israeli media reports said the strike targeted Ali al-Husseini, the head of the missile unit of the Hezbollah- and Iran-affiliated Imam Hussein brigade. Reports said the man likely survived the assassination as Al-Jadeed television said one person was kileld and several others were wounded.
Israeli reports said Israel carried out intensive contacts with the U.S. administration to obtain permission for the strike.
Tensions have been escalating in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River over the past days and issued a warning for residents to leave much of the area.
Israel in recent days has widened its attacks on Lebanon, some of the deadliest days since a Washington-brokered ceasefire agreement went into effect on April 17.
This was the first attack close to the Lebanese capital since May 6, where an Israeli strike killed a military official with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces in a southern Beirut suburb.
Overnight, the Israeli military pounded the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon's fourth-largest city, killing at least 14 people across the south of the country in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of the Washington talks.
The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah's use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel's northern border towns. The Israeli military said it has launched hundreds of attacks targeting what they said were Hezbollah military assets.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the U.S. capital. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since intensified, while largely sparing Beirut.
Hezbollah has dismissed the talks and instead endorsed its key ally Iran, which has made ending the war in Lebanon a condition for its own talks with Washington brokered by Pakistan.
Before the attacks on Thursday, Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued warnings to residents of eight buildings in Tyre, along the Mediterranean, and in surrounding neighborhoods. Many people have fled the area.
Further north in the city of Sidon, an Israeli drone struck an apartment building where some displaced families lived, killing five people and wounding 21 others, among them five children. Among the killed was Hossan Zeidan who once was a correspondent for Iran's Arabic-language al-Aalam television.
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.
At least 3,269 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,800 wounded.
According to Netanyahu's office, at least 23 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.
Source: Associated Press, Naharnet
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