An Israeli airstrike hit central Beirut on Sunday for the first time in weeks, killing at least one person, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. The attack came as Israel’s military has been pounding an area just outside the Lebanese capital with some of the heaviest waves of bombardment in months.
Israel’s intensified push on the battlefield appears aimed at pressuring the Lebanese government and Hezbollah to accede to terms for a cease-fire for Lebanon worked out between Israeli and American officials, in what Israeli analysts describe as a strategy of “negotiations under fire.”
The strike in Beirut on Sunday destroyed a seven-story building in the neighborhood of Ras al-Naba, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported. It said that search teams were working to rescue a number of people trapped under the rubble.
The explosion set off panic and confusion in the city. People rushed out into the street, some screaming, others trying to reach people by phone. Smoke and dust filled the air and gunfire rang out as multiple ambulances rushed to the scene, where a crowd had gathered.
Um Ahmad, who only gave her first name, stood across from the building, her three young daughters huddled behind her. She said that she, her husband and her six children were staying in a nearby apartment along with dozens others displaced by the war. The moment they heard the blast, they rushed out of their building in fear.
“We heard a loud boom and left immediately,” she said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military about the strike in Beirut. Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military said it had conducted “intelligence-based strikes” against Hezbollah on the Dahiya, an area just south of Beirut where the militant group holds sway that had come under heavy bombardment a day earlier.
About 20 rockets were fired into Israel on Sunday, setting off incoming rocket alert sirens in the area around Haifa, Israel’s main northern port city, and other places, the military said. Some of the rockets were intercepted by Israel’s air defenses and others fell in open areas. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
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