An Israeli air strike on an apartment building in Ain Saadeh, in the hills east of Beirut, killed three people and injured three others, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. The ministry said two of those killed were women.
The overnight attack hit a predominantly Christian town that Al Jazeera described as having previously remained outside the conflict’s direct reach. Its correspondent at the scene said there had been no advance warning for the area, contributing to alarm among neighbours and emergency workers.
Al Jazeera reported that the strike appeared to have been aimed at a particular third-floor apartment. People at the site told the broadcaster that the apartment was empty at the time, while the force of the attack killed people on the floor below. That account suggested an attempted targeted strike, but the supplied reporting did not establish whom Israel intended to hit.
The evidence also does not identify the three people killed. It therefore cannot substantiate claims that a Lebanese Forces Party official, his wife or any other named person died in the building. No Israeli statement explaining the choice of target was included in the supplied material.
The Guardian separately reported the same toll for Ain Saadeh, citing the Lebanese ministry through Agence France-Presse: three people killed and three injured. Its account placed the strike within a wider series of attacks in and around Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Elsewhere, a strike in Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood killed at least five people and wounded 52, according to the Lebanese ministry as reported by The Guardian. Al Jazeera said the dead there included a 15-year-old girl and three Sudanese nationals, while eight children were among those injured. A separate strike in Kfar Hatta killed seven people, including a four-year-old girl, The Guardian reported.
The wider campaign had also reached southern towns and transport links. Al Jazeera reported strikes across the Jabal Amel region and said bridges had been targeted as Israeli ground operations continued. Mercy Corps analyst Elie Yaacoub told the broadcaster that damage to transport routes risked cutting as many as 150,000 people off from humanitarian assistance.
Against that backdrop, the Ain Saadeh strike was notable because residents had viewed the area as comparatively safe. Al Jazeera reported that more than one million people had been displaced across Lebanon, with several thousand seeking shelter in the Mount Lebanon hills. The attack raised fresh concern about whether those areas could continue to serve as refuges as strikes expanded beyond locations previously exposed to fighting. Without an identified target or an Israeli account, the reason this particular building was struck remained unresolved in the supplied reports.
