Israel carried out a rare strike on Beirut Tuesday, killing at least one person and raising the stakes in the escalating tensions with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military said the strike targeted the militant commander allegedly behind the deaths of 12 children and teens in a weekend rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, as well as the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians hit in other strikes.
“Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday’s strike.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said 17 wounded were taken to the private Bahman Hospital, while 14 were taken to Hezbollah’s Rasoul Aazam hospital. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called on people to donate blood.
It was not immediately clear if the intended target of the strike had been killed or injured.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah wrote on social media that the “assassination attempt” had failed, adding, “An official statement in response will be issued by the Islamic Resistance as soon as all facts are taken into account.”
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security advisor and other officials.
A Hezbollah official and the group’s TV station said that an Israeli airstrike hit Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut on Tuesday evening, causing damage.
Meanwhile, tensions remained high in Israel as soldiers were due to appear before a military court Tuesday over what a defense lawyer said were allegations of sexual abuse of a Palestinian at a facility where Israel has held prisoners from Gaza during the war.
Hard-line nationalists in Netanyahu’s government and others have protested. An investigation by The Associated Press has exposed abysmal conditions at Sde Teiman, where most of the thousands detained in Gaza have been held. Israeli authorities have generally denied abuses in detention facilities for Palestinians.
More bodies and further destruction were found after Israeli forces withdrew from parts of Khan Younis in Gaza. The territory’s Health Ministry says over 39,300 people have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the war. Some diseases run rampant in appalling conditions in overcrowded tent camps housing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
