Israel's deadliest strike in central Beirut leaves Lebanese stunned as they dig through the rubble

Rescue workers searched through the rubble of a collapsed building in central Beirut on Friday morning, hours after two Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.

The air raid was the deadliest attack on central Beirut in over a year of war, hitting two residential buildings in neighborhoods that have swelled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere in the country.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and Israeli media said the strikes aimed to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group. Al-Manar said Safa was not in either building at the time. The Israeli military had no comment on the reports.

Thursday night's strikes came as Israel escalates its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire between the two rivals. The same day as the Beirut explosions, Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two peacekeepers from Indonesia, drawing widespread condemnation.

Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel. While disrupting life for Israelis, most of Hezbollah’s barrages have not caused casualties. But early Friday, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon killed a man from Thailand working on a farm in northern Israel.

In Beirut’s Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood, civil defense members and municipal workers dug through the pile of concrete and twisted metal from a three-story building knocked down by Thursday night’s strike.

In an adjacent building that was badly damaged, Ahmad al-Khatib stood in the apartment of his in-laws where he, his wife, Marwa Hamdan, and their 2 ½-year-old daughter, Ayla, suffered injuries. He had just picked up his wife from work and she was performing the evening Muslim prayers at home when the blast hit.

“The world suddenly turned upside down and darkness prevailed,” said the 42-year-old, tears running down his cheeks. He pulled his daughter out from under the debris of a wall that collapsed in a bedroom. Al-Khatib, who works for the postal service. said he found the force of the explosion had thrown his wife against a wall and a piece of metal had hit her in the head.

“I looked in her face and shouted, ‘Say something!’” he said, but she only responded with sounds of pain. His wife remains in the ICU at a Beirut hospital. His daughter suffered only minor injuries.

Mohammed Tarhani said he had moved in with his brother nearby in the neighborhood after fleeing around southern Lebanon to escape airstrikes the past weeks. His children were out on the veranda, and he was in the living room when the strike hit.

“We rushed out to look for the children,” he said. “Where is one supposed to go now?"

Civil defense official Walid Hashash said they don’t expect more bodies under the rubble as no people are missing. He added that once operations are over they will issue a final death toll.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. Israel says its stepped-up campaign since late September aims to push Hezbollah away from the border to allow tens of thousands of its citizens evacuated from the area to return home.

More than 2,100 Lebanese –- including Hezbollah fighters, civilians and medical personnel — have been killed the past year by Israeli strikes, more than two thirds of them in the past few weeks. Hezbollah attacks have killed 29 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers in northern Israel since October 2023 and in southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on Sept. 30. So far, Israeli troops have been operating in a narrow strip of a few kilometers (miles) along the border.

The war threatens to spiral even further, with Israel aiming to strike a crippling blow to its longtime adversary Hezbollah. Netanyahu this week warned Lebanese they would suffer the same destruction that Israel’s campaign against Hamas has inflicted in Gaza unless they take action against Hezbollah.

Israel has also vowed to strike back against the Lebanese group’s supporter, Iran, after it launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week. Iran’s barrage was in retaliation for previous Israeli strikes that killed Hamas’ leader in Tehran and senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures in Lebanon.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s escalated campaign against Hezbollah. He said Israel had a “clear and very legitimate” interest to try to ensure the return of tens of thousands of its citizens who were evacuated from their homes near the border because of Hezbollah fire since last October.

He told a news conference after attending an annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos that the U.S. is “extremely focused” on reaching a diplomatic solution to the war.

Meanwhile the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, was rearranging some of its personnel after its positions were repeated hit by Israeli forces Thursday.

UNIFIL said an Israeli tank directly fired on an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.

The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a U.N. base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”

Afterward, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases. Plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that peacekeepers with UNIFIL are staying in their positions, but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.

UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The United Nations expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure along the border in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.

___

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.