The southern suburb of Beirut was subjected to an Israeli bombing that was described as more massive than the strike in which Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent said that the Israeli raids on the southern suburb targeted several buildings that were completely destroyed.
The American New York Times quoted three Israeli officials as saying that the raids targeted a meeting of senior Hezbollah leaders, including Hashem Safi al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Nasrallah’s potential successor in the party’s leadership.
Israeli Channel 14 reported that the target in the Beirut attack was Hashem Safi al-Din. Axios also quoted 3 Israeli officials as saying that Safi al-Din was the target in the latest attack, but it is not yet clear whether he was killed in the raid.
Axios, citing Israeli sources, indicated that Hashem Safi al-Din was in the deepest underground bunker.
Security sources told Reuters that the strike on the suburb in Beirut was larger than the one that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
Director of Al Jazeera’s office in Beirut, Mazen Ibrahim, described the attack as the strongest and most severe in terms of destructive power and the sounds of huge explosions, the echo of which reached areas outside Greater Beirut.
He added that the targeted area is a square in the Al-Marija area in the heart of the southern suburb, and described the targeting as unusual, similar to what happened during the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
Expert analyzes
In an analysis of the recent bombing that targeted the southern suburb area, the military and strategic expert, Brigadier General Elias Hanna, presented a military vision about the nature of the target and the dimensions of the operation.
According to Hanna, the absence of successive explosions clearly indicates that the target was not an ammunition or weapons depot as was initially rumored.
Hanna explained in his analysis to Al Jazeera that targeting an ammunition store usually leads to a series of successive explosions, as the munitions explode one after the other, creating a scene of continuous explosions, but what happened in this case was completely different, which suggests that the target was of a different nature. .
In the context of his analysis, Hanna indicated that the targeting, if the reports are true, may be directed towards a senior leadership figure in Hezbollah, and stressed that such targeting, if true, would have major geopolitical repercussions on the entire region.
The expert stressed the strategic importance of the assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, pointing to his pivotal role in the Iranian “unity of arenas” in the region.
He added that targeting such a figure aims to disrupt the regional balance of power and disrupt the Iranian project in the region.
Hanna drew attention to the fact that such targeting, if confirmed, may indicate a belief on the part of the implementing party that there is no ready alternative in the leadership of Hezbollah.
However, he pointed out the presence of important leadership figures in the party, such as Hashem Safi al-Din, head of the Executive Council, who is considered familiar with all party affairs and close to Iran.
He stressed the need to deal with this information with caution and reservation, stressing the importance of waiting for more confirmations and details before drawing final conclusions about the nature of the target and the repercussions of the operation on the regional scene.
A series of raids
Lebanese official media reported on Thursday night that a series of Israeli raids targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, in one of the heaviest strikes on Beirut since Israel began bombing it on September 23.
The National News Agency reported that it recorded more than 10 successive raids, some of the strongest raids on the southern suburb of Beirut, since the start of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
For his part, a source close to the party indicated that the number of raids reached 11 successive Israeli strikes, which caused a loud sound that shook buildings and whose echoes, according to eyewitnesses, reached areas outside Beirut and its suburbs.
Footage showed huge balls of flame rising from the targeted site as clouds of thick smoke rose.
Sirens sounded in some cars on the outskirts of Beirut due to the loud noise caused by the raids.
This raid was preceded by a warning issued by Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee to residents of buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood in the southern suburb to evacuate their homes, and he attached pictures of the area in question.
He said on his account on the X platform, “You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, and the IDF will act against them in the near future.”
Earlier on Thursday evening, an Israeli raid targeted a warehouse adjacent to Beirut Airport, a source close to the Lebanese Hezbollah told Agence France-Presse, and it was not immediately clear what the warehouse was or its contents.
On Wednesday night, the southern suburb of Beirut was subjected to 17 Israeli bombing operations by warplanes and warships from the sea, which included various neighborhoods there, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
An Israeli raid during the night also targeted “a center for the Islamic Health Authority affiliated with Hezbollah” in the Bachoura locality, west of Beirut, in a neighborhood not far from the Prime Minister’s Office, while the authority mourned seven of its medics who died in the raid.
Since mid-September, Israel has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah, and the bombing since September 23 has led to the death of more than a thousand people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands from their homes, according to official Lebanese figures.
Israel announced on Monday that it had begun a ground operation in southern Lebanon, which has not resulted in significant progress on the ground so far.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated last Friday in raids that the Israeli army said targeted the party’s “central headquarters” in Haret Hreik in the southern suburb of Beirut.
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