Israel’s military has bombed the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the second time in a week, killing at least three people and threatening the ceasefire it agreed with Hezbollah four months ago. The attack on Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, early on Tuesday morning, came without warning and wounded at least seven others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had attacked a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in attacks against Israeli civilians. It said the air raid was “under the direction of the Shin Bet”, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack, calling it a “dangerous warning” of intentions against his country. “Israel’s persistence in its aggression requires more effort from us in addressing Lebanon’s friends around the world and rallying them in support of our right to full sovereignty over our land,” Aoun said in a statement released by the Lebanese presidency.
Videos of the aftermath of the attack showed plumes of smoke rising from Dahiyeh.
They also showed damage to the top three floors of an apartment building and piles of debris covering cars below the structure.
The latest attack came three days after Israeli forces bombed Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in November.
That agreement, guaranteed by France and the United States, brought a halt to a yearlong conflict and mandated that Israeli ground troops withdraw from southern Lebanon. It also called for Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from southern Lebanon and that Lebanese troops deploy to the area. Israel, however, delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and has continued to occupy several hilltops in Lebanon. It has also carried out near-daily attacks on the country, claiming its targets are Hezbollah fighters and weapons. It launched the attack on Beirut on Friday, saying they were in response to rockets fired from Lebanon. Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings. Its leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, also warned on Saturday that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanon’s government does not act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives. Analysts blamed Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon on a lack of action from the US.
Phyllis Bennis, a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera that the Trump administration has effectively greenlighted Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, as well as in Gaza and Syria.
Israel has now “unilaterally collapsed the ceasefire” in Lebanon, but Bennis said both France and the US – the guarantors of the deal – have stood back and let the Israeli assaults continue, without taking any punitive action.