Israeli Air Force jets struck Saturday in the Dakhya Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut, considered to be Hizbullah’s stronghold in town. The planes fired a missile at a nine-story building located near Hizbullah’s High Council offices, destroying it completely.
According to reports there were casualties in the place. Lebanese officials said that the offices of Hizbullah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, were located in the building that was struck.
At around 5 p.m., the Air Force struck another building at a southern Beirut neighborhood considered a Hizbullah stronghold. Eyewitnesses reported hearing a very loud explosion in the area and seeing a lot of smoke ascending over the place.
Residents also reported that the building was seriously damaged and that civilians may have been hurt. It was still unclear what the building was being used for.
The al-Jazeera network reported that the Air Force struck the headquarters of Hizbullah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, which is located in a southern suburb of Beirut.
Arab media also reported that the IDF attacked the home of senior Hizbullah member Hossein Mousavi in Baalbek in northern Lebanon. Several people were apparently injured in the strike, but it was unclear whether the sheikh was among them.
Earlier, at least 23 civilians, among them women and children, were killed when an Israeli missile hit a van carrying passengers on a road in the Tyre area, police said.
A police spokesman said more may have been wounded as the vehicle was directly hit.
According to reports, the passengers were on their way to a UN center when their vehicle was struck.
As the rockets fired by Hizbullah land deeper and deeper in Israeli territory, the IDF’s operation in Lebanon is also expanding: Air Force jets launched a massive attack Saturday on the Shiite quarter in Beirut, where Hizbullah Chief Hassan Nasrallah and other top terror group members reside.
At about 3 p.m., the al-Jazeera bews channel reported that IDF jets attacked the al-Masnaah border crossing between Syria and Lebanon.Tens of thousands of people have passed through the crossing in recent days in order to flee Lebanon.
Another border crossing was also attacked, and at first eyewitnesses reported that Syrian posts were struck. Both the IDF and Syrian officials denied the reports. Later, there were reports of three people killed and six wounded in an IAF strike in Bin Jabel in south Lebanon.
'80 peole killed since onset of operation'
Earlier Lebanon police reported that three citizens were killed in an Air Force attack near the border with Syria in the east.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that some 80 people were killed in Lebanon since the IDF offensive began last Wednesday. It was also reported that in the last 24 hours some 55,000 people have asked to leave the country.
On Friday the IAF destroyed Nasrallah’s headquarters in Beirut, a senior IDF officer said the Hizbullah chief was hiding in a bunker under the destroyed structures when the attack took place.
Hanan Greenberg and Reuters contributed to the report
First published: 14:35, 07.15.6