What we know about the Israeli strike on a building belonging to the family of a Hezbollah MP in Beirut

In the midst of a frenzy of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, including central Beirut late Tuesday afternoon, on the eve of the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the apartment of the party MP’s family Shiite Amine Cherri in Bourj Abi Haïdar was bombed.

Here’s what we know about the strike, based on information provided by local sources:

The target location

The strike therefore hit the family building of Hezbollah MP Amine Cherri, located on Majdalani Street, perpendicular to the al-Maarri artery, to the right of the Mazraa corniche (coming from the National Museum of Beirut) and close to the Fakhreddine al-Maani public secondary school for girls which houses displaced people.

A drone launched two missiles shortly before 6 p.m. One destroyed the Cherri family’s apartment. The second hit the apartment in a neighboring building without exploding. The army visited the site of the strike on Thursday.

The Israeli army did not issue a prior evacuation order for this building.

The victims

The strike left three dead and around ten injured, the Ministry of Health announced the next day in a provisional report. Human remains still had to be examined before establishing a definitive assessment. Among the deaths announced on social networks, which could be confirmed at The Orient-The Day by a source close to MP Amine Cherri, was Mahmoud Cherri, brother of the parliamentarian and father of the visual artist and videographer Ali Cherri, based in Paris. According to our information, two neighbors were also killed. Imad Cherri, another brother of the Hezbollah deputy, is among the injured. Amine Cherri was not in the apartment at the time of the strike. Contacted by L’OILhe was not immediately available to comment on these bombings.

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On his Facebook account, Mahmoud Cherri had posted, a few hours before his death, a message announcing that an Israeli strike had destroyed “our houses and supermarket”, without specifying in which neighborhood. He had, on the occasion, published a photo of himself making the victory sign on the rubble, paying tribute in his message to “young people who fell as martyrs or were injured to defend our dignity”.

The context

Shortly before the strike and following an Israeli attack which destroyed a building in the Noueiri district, rue Ma’moun, in Beirut, very close to Bourj Abi Haïdar, Amine Cherri had accused Israel of “taking revenge on the Lebanese”. He declared that “Israeli aggression on Beirut only targets civilians” and that “Israel seeks revenge on all resistance fighters.” He added that the Israeli army had won “no victories” on the ground and clarified that he had no first-hand information on the ceasefire in the making.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, a few hours before the announcement and then the entry into force of the ceasefire, the Israeli air force bombed several neighborhoods of Beirut within the walls, including Noueiri, Ras Beirut, Mar Elias and Khandak el-Ghammiq, with or without prior warning. It also launched an attack of 20 missiles in less than two minutes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, shelled the Baalbeck region and South Lebanon and almost simultaneously struck border posts with Syria in North Lebanon.

If the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, since October 8, 2023, have not killed any Shiite party MP, several of them have lost loved ones, notably Mohammad Raad, head of the Hezbollah parliamentary group, who lost his son in a strike in South Lebanon, and Ali Ammar, whose son also died in the beeper attacks on September 17.