The Israeli army has launched renewed attacks on the Lebanese capital Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is said to have been the target of the attack. Various media report that Nasrallah is safe, although Hezbollah has not yet officially responded.
According to the Israeli military, the attacks were aimed at “targets belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah”, including Hezbollah’s headquarters in southern Beirut. The command center is “deeply embedded in a civilian area,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.
The first reports of the attack came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York.
Impact still unclear
Little is officially known about casualties or material damage. Witnesses spoke to the Reuters news agency about ‘dark clouds of smoke’ above the city. Our Middle East reporter Pepijn Nagtzaam says he has never heard such loud blows, ‘and we are quite a distance from the place where the bombing took place’.
“We heard ten extremely loud bangs here. The windows shook and everyone here on the boulevard became silent from fear,” says Nagtzaam.
“It is certain that several large residential apartment buildings have been bombed, in a densely populated area, so probably with many casualties. That shows how far Israel is willing to go to get Nasrallah.”
In this video, Greek journalist Evangelo Sipsas shows why he fled Lebanon:
