(Al Jazeera Media Network) A series of Israeli strikes have targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, almost an hour after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order to residents in areas that it says held underground facilities used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah for drone production.
The attack on Thursday is the fourth time Israel has bombed Beirut since a ceasefire with Hezbollah went into effect in November. It has carried out assassinations and announced strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah sites.
Israel has violated the ceasefire on a near-daily basis for seven months, according to the Lebanese government led by President Joseph Aoun, Arab nations and rights groups. Aoun has recently appealed to the United States and France to rein in Israel.
Aoun, in a statement on Thursday after the strikes, voiced “firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression” and “flagrant violation of an international accord … on the eve of a sacred religious festival.”
Before the attacks, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had ordered residents living near buildings in the neighbourhoods of Hadath, Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh in the Dahiyeh suburbs to evacuate.
“You are next to infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah,” Adraee said in a social media post, which included a map of the eight buildings being targeted in four different locations. The message in Arabic indicated that Israel would soon bomb the area.
After the evacuation order, Lebanese media reported the area was nearly emptied of inhabitants, who had been preparing to celebrate Eid al-Adha. It was sealed off as “warning strikes” could be heard, the reports said.
The Wafa news agency reported that 100 housing units were destroyed in Israel’s strikes on southern Beirut.
Later Thursday night, Israeli strikes also targeted the southern Lebanese village of Ain Qana, according to Lebanese state media, shortly after further Israeli army evacuation warnings were issued for the area. Ain Qana is located to the east of the coastal city of Sidon.
Israel launches several attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, south Lebanon
aljazeera.com