Israel inflicts new wounds on Beirut as city reels from relentless attacks

Military official says strike on Lebanese capital aims to increase pressure on government to disarm Hezbollah

A poster depicting former Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine is carried from the site of an Israeli strike on southern Beirut. Reuters

The deep crater only metres from the wreckage of Sunday's Israeli strike on Beirut shows bombings are not a new threat in the city.

“It happened during the war,” a Hezbollah official said when asked about the attack that led to the wide, sunken crater in the capital's southern suburbs. He was referring to Israel's campaign in Lebanon last year, but the violence has not ended in Lebanon's capital.

Diggers still lift the rubble from the crater, nearly six months after a tenuous ceasefire was agreed to between Israel and Hezbollah. Sunday's attack on an alleged weapons storage facility in the Hadath neighbourhood has added another demolished building to the list.

It marked only the third time Beirut has come under attack since the ceasefire was agreed on. The city still bears the scars of the war, but people have tried to resume their normal lives while Israeli drones are heard above them.

“I have no idea why they are doing it and when this will end,” said Fawzi Al Ayan, who lives in a neighbourhood next to Hadath but spends a lot of time in the area.

On the morning after the attack, local security officials restricted access to the site, but journalists were allowed to film nearby with a limited view of where the Israeli attack hit. They escorted The National to the bombing site on the provision that no images were taken and that mobile phones remained hidden.

The target appeared to be a small warehouse, surrounded by six-storey residential buildings with scorch marks and shattered windows.

There was no obvious evidence to support Israel's claims of a weapons facility – although security was tight, as engineers worked to restore a damaged electricity line.

Israel bombs Beirut building despite ceasefire

01:12

“Israel is sending the following message with this third strike on Dahieh: that the freedom of movement Israel has given itself on the ground from the time of the ceasefire until now – if you think it’s just limited to the Bekaa and the south, no – that free movement also applies to Dahieh,” said Gen Mounir Shehadeh, who until recently was the Lebanese government's co-ordinator with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil.)

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strike southern Lebanon and other areas of the country on a daily basis and it occupies five points of Lebanese territory.

A month ago, when Israel hit Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire came into effect, it also bombed Hadath – levelling a tall building near two busy schools on a Friday, sending children and residents fleeing. Sunday's assault was a reminder that the danger is far from over, as Israel seeks to further degrade the perceived threat from Hezbollah.

Israel's relentless bombardment of southern Lebanon, its aggressive rhetoric and strikes on Beirut have been viewed by many as a tactic to increase the pressure on the government in Beirut to disarm Hezbollah.

“Why would you bomb it now when you could have done six months ago? They know everything. When you have a ceasefire, you have a ceasefire. They are putting pressure [on Lebanon],” Mr Al Ayan said.

In a joint announcement of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they would not allow Beirut to be a “sanctuary” for Hezbollah. They added that the Lebanese state has a “direct responsibility for preventing” that from happening.

The Lebanese government is under pressure from the international community, as well as some factions inside Lebanon, to disarm Hezbollah – a highly sensitive, complicated task that just last year would have been a taboo topic of discussion.

Hezbollah has said vaguely that it is open to talks about a national defence strategy once Israel withdraws from Lebanon, but it has firmly rejected calls for it to hand over its weapons. It described calls for it to disarm as a tactic to cause strife between the group and the Lebanese military.

Gen Shehadeh said the latest Israeli attack sought to exacerbate divisions between the government and Hezbollah over the subject of disarming.

• 

  Israeli launches its third attack on Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday. AP

• 

  A clouds of smoke darkens the skyline over Dahieh, southern suburb of Beirut, as Israeli ordnance lands. AP

• 

  Flames spread between two buildings in Dahieh, southern Beirut. AP

• 

  A tent burns in Dahieh after an Israeli air strike. AP

• 

  Israeli warplanes bombed a site in the Hadath-Jamous area of Beirut's southern suburbs, damaging buildings and vehicles, according to Lebanese state media. EPA

• 

  Rescue workers remove an air-conditioning compressor from a damaged flat at the site of the Israeli bombing of Dahieh in south Beirut on Sunday. AP

On Monday, Hezbollah MP Hassan Ezzedine rejected Israeli claims that the site of Sunday's attack was a weapons storage facility. He said the strike was an attempt by Israel to cause instability and increase pressure on the state.

The Lebanese government has urged international sponsors of the ceasefire, including the US and France, to put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks. Beirut has long said that, while Lebanon and Hezbollah have held up their part of the agreement, Israel has repeatedly failed to do so.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the former army commander elected earlier this year, has said he wants all weapons to be under state control by the end of the year – but through diplomatic means, not by force.

He has also repeatedly said that Hezbollah has complied with its side of the ceasefire deal, including handing over its weapons and positions to the Lebanese military in the south of the country.