A brutal Israeli air raid on Beirut last night failed to eliminate a top Hezbollah official but left at least 22 people dead and more than a hundred wounded in what was the deadliest single assault in more than a year of war with Hezbollah.
ABOUT THE BLAST
The punishing airstrikes on Lebanon‘s capital targeted two residential buildings in separate neighbourhoods simultaneously.
One apartment block was utterly demolished, while the other suffered considerable damage as several storeys were blown apart.
But as civilians and rescuers were left to pick through the rubble in a desperate effort to evacuate the wounded, Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that Wafiq Safa, a top security official and close ally of assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah, was not injured in the strike.
The attack came the same day Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two of them, drawing widespread condemnation and prompting Italy’s Defence Ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in protest.
IT’S BEEN TIT-FOR-TAT
Thursday’s strikes followed a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel that boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion.
Hezbollah meanwhile has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
