 "22 killed in Israeli attack in Lebanon, top Hezbollah security official escapes assassination attempt")
At least 22 people were killed and 117 others injured after Israeli airstrikes hit residential areas of central Beirut on Thursday evening, the country’s health ministry said.
The Israeli strikes on Thursday targeting central Beirut were the deadliest since Benjamin Netanyahu’s troops intensified its bombardment campaign on the country two weeks ago.
The apparent target of the Israeli strikes on Thursday was Wafiq Safa, assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s brother-in-law and a top security official of the terrorist group. But , he survived.
A report by Reuters quoted three security sources as saying that Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, eluded an Israeli assassination attempt on October 10.
Israel strikes in central Beirut
After two relatively calm days in the Lebanese capital, the Israeli strikes on Thursday hit residential buildings in Bachoura, a small Shia area in central Beirut.
Israel’s latest strikes were in Bachoura’s two densely populated neighbourhoods - Nweiri and Basta.
Israel has repeatedly pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, over the last two weeks, but the strikes on Thursday was only the third time the city centre has been targeted.
Strike without warning
As per the Reuters report, Israel did not issue any evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes on Thursday.
Among the 22 dead was a family of eight, including three children, who were evacuated from the south, the report quoted a security source as saying.
Impact Shorts
View AllNight of deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut
As per AFP, loud bangs sounded, thick columns of smoke rose and ambulance sirens rang throughout the night as deadly Israeli strikes hit residential areas of central Beirut on Thursday.
In the working-class district of Basta, whose inhabitants are largely Sunni and Shiite Muslim, two old buildings of three or four floors had collapsed.
While in Nweiri, the site of the second strike, a brand new eight-storey building had been damaged.
Ayman, who lives across the street, said he “heard three explosions”. “The kitchen windows exploded… and my son started crying,” AFP quoted him as saying.
Firemen worked to put out the blaze after the strike on what the National News Agency described as a “residential building”. They toiled to evacuate residents from the upper floors using a ladder.
In Basta, Several wounded people lay by the side of the road, while others collected their clothes in bags as they prepared to flee the area.
“I’m not scared usually, but it was like an earthquake,” AFP quoted a resident as saying, who wanted to flee the area.
Rescuers, meanwhile, hurried clearing the debris to see if anyone was trapped.
Hezbollah cancels meeting press
Hezbollah, meanwhile, announced cancelling a press conference which was scheduled for Friday (October 11), “in view of current developments”.
With inputs from agencies.
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