Israeli military says massive airstrike on Beirut targeted Hezbollah command center, Amal source: Nasrallah alive

Israel wiped out residential buildings along three streets, killed as many as five people and injured scores of others in a series of airstrikes on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh on Friday night.

Following the strikes, Israeli media said the military was working to confirm whether Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was present at the site of the bombing.

A high-level source close to Amal leader Nabih Berri told Mada Masr that the party leader is alive and was not at the site that was targeted. Reuters has also reported that Narallah is alive, citing a source close to Hezbollah.

Neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah have put out an official statement regarding the claimed targeting of Nasrallah. It has also not been confirmed whether Nasrallah was even present at the site of the bombing.

The Israeli military issued a statement claiming they had targeted an underground command and control center for Hezbollah at the site. The munitions used were intended to penetrate underground bunkers, according to the Israeli military radio.

Video footage of the strike shows a firebelt stretching across residential blocks as at least 10 missiles could be heard exploding in rapid succession. 

Israel hit the southern suburbs of Beirut with ten airstrikes in quick succession at around 18:30 on Friday, targeting multiple sites in Haret Hreik, Dahiyeh, in the southern suburbs of the capital. The noise was audible across the city. Huge clouds of smoke could be seen on the skyline, billowing from the site of the attack.

Destruction from the air raid stretched across a large area of Burj al-Barajneh and Haret Hreik. Initial footage emerging on social media showed multiple fires burning and smoke continuing to billow from among the rubble left by the strikes. The remains of a tower block leaned out of a huge crater, which was visible from live footage streamed in the minutes after the strike by Hezbollah media channel Al-Manar.

In just one of the multiple sites struck, four residential buildings were razed to the ground, according to Al-Manar. Correspondents streaming for the channel said that first response agencies, including the civil defense, were working to remove the wounded from under the rubble with their hands as their vehicles were unable to reach the area. Other footage circulated showed a car upended in a crater in the road.

A source in the Lebanese Health Ministry told Mada Masr that five people were killed and 85 people injured.

At the time of writing, the Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed that two people were killed in the strike and 76 people injured. Al-Manar correspondents said that at least five people were killed and transferred from the site to hospitals.

“Moments ago, the Israeli defense forces carried out a precise strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization that served as the epicenter of Hezbollah’s terror,” said military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Hezbollah’s headquarters was intentionally built under a residential building in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.”

The Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported that “initial news indicates the health” of Nasrallah but that the definite news would only come with a statement from Hezbollah.

Israel issued “false justifications in an attempt to cover up its brutal crimes” after “targeting a densely populated area,” the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon stated after the strike. The statement described the airstrike as “a serious escalation that changes the rules of the game” and said the perpetrator would be punished.