Israel launched its biggest attack in the center of Beirut and urged new evacuations of the population in the south. international

Mariam Ghuel, 31, has been fleeing the bombings for 11 months without success. On October 11, 2023, three days after Hezbollah launched its first projectiles against Israeli positions and began firing, he fled from his small town of Mays al Yabal in the southeast, which almost touches Israel, to Dahiye. In , the large suburb of Beirut that Shias left “the day they bombed so much”: the last day, the 24th, when Israeli forces killed 558 people in a few hours. He has arrived at a school converted into a shelter in Bashura, a considered safe area in the center of Beirut and not far from government headquarters. It was here, just past midnight, that he heard the sound of a bombardment of a building a few dozen meters away. With nine people temporarily killed, it was the deadliest of two attacks that Israel has carried out on the capital since it began its offensive last month, now accompanied by a ground offensive and requests for new evacuations to continue the operation. .

“Here I felt safer than in Dahiya, because I’m in a shelter and there was nothing political or military here,” she says, pointing to the hole left by the missile. As the white flags on the damaged walls remind us, this was the headquarters of the Islamic Committee for Health, a health and charitable organization linked to Hezbollah. At least seven of the nine dead are, in fact, committee workers and volunteers. The Israeli military limited itself to reporting a “precision strike”, details of which it would provide later.

Three consecutive attacks occurred without any prior warning, leaving a cloud of black smoke over the city, as EL PAÍS was able to verify. At street level, the result shows a very localized bombing that barely damaged the other nine floors of the building. However, Ghuel heard it so close from the school courtyard, where he takes refuge with his children, that he felt it was against the school itself. “People started screaming, children started crying. (…) I don’t feel safe here anymore, but I don’t have a choice. Where am I going? “We spend every day not knowing whether we will make it out alive or dead,” says Ghuel.

Imad Hiazi heard it even closer, because he lives in the same building and went out into the street in his pajamas amid the glass and smoke. He says the property has 84 apartments “and each houses at least two families,” because “practically all of them” host displaced people from the south. “If we dare to live here and open our doors to other people, it is only because we feel safe, because we know that Hezbollah does not hold a single bullet here. What we have found on the ground are not weapons or bullets, but serum and bandages,” he protests. This is the idea on which Kamal Al Zuhur, member of the Civil Protection of the Islamic Health Committee, emphasizes: “The victims were those who were in charge of carrying the injured or the sick and helping the (hundreds of thousands of) displaced people” South From, the Bekaa Valley and Dahiye, the most heavily bombed areas.

Israel has previously bombed ambulances and toilets belonging to Hezbollah-affiliated organizations, believed to be part of the organization or disguised militiamen.

In the south, where Ghuel falls, Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militiamen have been fighting since at least this Wednesday. The army lost eight people in its worst day against Shiite militias since fighting began a year ago. Apart from the capital, Israeli war planes are also maintaining pressure on militia bases there. Their main target during the night was a municipal building in the town of Bint Jbeil, about three kilometers from the border between the two countries. According to the army’s version, Hezbollah militiamen operated there with “large quantities” of weapons. Military sources say 15 out of a total of 60 died in the operation in the last 24 hours.

A Lebanese Army soldier living on the sidelines of the fighting has also died. It was an Israeli airstrike while working on an evacuation and rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross in the city of Tayyaba in the south. The Red Cross reminded in a statement that it “always” coordinates its movements with FINUL (United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon), which transfers information to Israel. Similarly, it has reported that four of its volunteers have been injured.

abandonment

Also, Hezbollah continued to launch dozens of missiles and some drones toward Israeli territory, raising alarms about possible impacts since the early hours of Thursday. According to military sources, one of those drones was intercepted in the sea near Nahariya, a dozen kilometers from the border, and the other fell without any damage or victims.

Repeating tactics implemented in Gaza, where most of the 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes, the army warned residents of several towns in southern Lebanon to leave their homes as troops consider those towns a war zone. According to a statement, the area. This is something that has already been done with other municipalities in recent weeks.

“Evacuate your homes immediately. Be careful, going south is prohibited. Any move southwards means putting oneself in danger,” a military spokesman warned, detailing the instructions on the social network The announcement said, “It is planned that a military operation by Hezbollah for its military activities “Any house used will be considered a target.”

This Thursday, Israel announced the death of three Hamas officials in Gaza, who were reportedly killed in an attack in the north of the enclave three months ago. Among them were Rouhi Mashtaha, head of the hardline group’s government in the Strip, whom Israel considered one of those closest to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the major attack on October 7, and Haniyeh, the movement’s new leader after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in July. In. “Hamas did not announce their deaths, as it has done after other previous killings, to avoid loss of morale,” the statement said.