An Israeli air strike hit an apartment building in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing at least four people and wounding seven, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. The attack was Israel’s second strike on the Lebanese capital in less than a week and intensified concern about the durability of its ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The strike took place early on Tuesday and came without advance warning, witnesses told Al Jazeera. Images from the aftermath showed smoke above the area, damage across the building’s upper floors and debris scattered over vehicles below. Rescue work continued after the blast. Lebanon’s health ministry said a woman was among those killed.
Israel’s military said it targeted Hassan Bdeir, whom it described as a member of a Hezbollah unit and Iran’s Quds Force. It alleged that Bdeir was helping Hamas plan a significant and imminent attack against Israeli civilians. The military did not provide evidence for those assertions in the supplied account, and Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike and framed it as a threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty. His response reflected the pressure on the government after an agreement reached four months earlier had halted a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The ceasefire, backed by France and the United States, called for Israeli ground forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon. It also required Hezbollah fighters to move north of the Litani River and provided for Lebanese troops to deploy in the south. Both sides subsequently accused the other of breaches. Israel delayed a planned withdrawal and retained positions on several hilltops, while continuing strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah personnel and weapons.
Three days before the Dahiyeh attack, Israel had struck Beirut for the first time since the November agreement. The Israeli military said that earlier action responded to rockets fired from Lebanon; Hezbollah denied involvement in those launches. In the April 1 strike, the supplied reporting identified no preceding rocket fire, making the new attack distinct from the military’s stated rationale for the earlier raid.
The deaths placed civilians and combatant claims at the centre of another test for the truce. Israel presented the operation as action against an imminent security threat, while Lebanon’s president treated it as continuing aggression. The lack of publicly supplied evidence for the allegation against Bdeir left the military’s justification unverified in the immediate reporting.
With a second attack reaching Beirut in days, the incident raised the risk that recurring strikes and disputed ceasefire violations could undo the relative calm established in November. The immediate confirmed toll remained four killed and seven wounded.
