Israel strikes Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire ended the
latest Israel-Hezbollah war
[March 29, 2025]
By BASSEM MROUE
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel on Friday launched an attack on Lebanon's capital
for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah
war in November.
Associated Press reporters in Beirut heard a loud boom and witnessed
smoke rising from an area in the city's southern suburbs that Israel's
military had vowed to strike.
It marked Israel's first strike on Beirut since a ceasefire took hold
last November between it and the Hezbollah militant group, though Israel
has attacked targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then.
Israel’s army said it hit a Hezbollah drone storage facility in Dahiyeh,
which it called a militant stronghold. The strike came after Israel,
which accuses Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields, warned
residents to evacuate the area.
The area struck is a residential and commercial area and is close to at
least two schools.
Israel sends a message to the Lebanese government
Israeli officials said the attack was retaliation for rockets it said
were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. They promised strikes on
Beirut would continue unless Lebanon's government worked to ensure such
attacks ceased.
“We will not allow firing at our communities, not even a trickle,”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We will attack
everywhere in Lebanon, against any threat to the State of Israel."
Hezbollah denied firing the rockets, and accused Israel of seeking a
pretext to continue attacking Lebanon.
Lebanon’s government ordered all schools and universities in Beirut’s
southern suburb of Hadath to close for the day. Residents were seen
fleeing the area in cars and on foot ahead of the strike.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the
day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by its Hamas
allies ignited the war in Gaza. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200
in Israel and abducted 251 others during the 2023 attack.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict exploded into all-out war last September
when Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the
militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people
in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.
Under the ceasefire, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all
Lebanese territory by late January. The deadline was extended to Feb.
18, but Israel has remained in five border locations while carrying out
dozens of strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in southern and
eastern Lebanon. Last week, Israeli airstrikes on several locations in
Lebanon killed six people.
[to top of second column]
|
A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet falls before hitting a building
in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March
28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
France criticizes failure to observe ceasefire
Speaking in Paris, Lebanon’s President, Joseph Aoun, said the Beirut
area strike was a continuation “of Israel’s violations of the
agreement” sponsored by France and the U.S.
During a joint news conference with Aoun, French President Emmanuel
Macron called the attack “unacceptable,” and promised to address it
with Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. Macron said that the
U.S. can exert pressure on Israel.
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman called on Lebanon's government
to act.
“Israel is defending its people and interests by responding to
rocket attacks from terrorists in Lebanon," the spokeswoman, Tammy
Bruce, said Friday. “We expect the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm
these terrorists to prevent further hostilities.”
The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert,
said the escalation had created "a critical period for Lebanon and
the wider region.”
Israeli strikes in other parts of Lebanon on Friday killed three
people and wounded 18, including children and women, in the southern
village of Kfar Tibnit, said Lebanon's health ministry.
The strikes comes less than two weeks after Israel ended its
ceasefire with Hamas with surprise strikes that killed hundreds of
people in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of
food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza's roughly 2
million Palestinians.
Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns 59 hostages
it still holds — 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is
demanding that the group give up power, disarm and send its leaders
into exile.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining captives in
exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel's offensive in the Strip has killed over 50,000 people and
wounded 114,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not
say how many were civilians or combatants.
The ministry said Friday that nearly 900 have been killed in Gaza
since the ceasefire ended in mid-March, including more than 40 over
the past 24 hours.
___
Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Samuel
Petrequin in Paris and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this
report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
