Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier three times with low-flying flights over Beirut today in the space of 30 minutes, creating deafening booms and panicking residents of the Lebanese capital who ran for cover.
The overflights occurred minutes before Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to speak at the memorial service for the Lebanese group’s top military commander Fouad Shukr, who was killed last week in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Eyewitnesses said the Israeli fighters were visible to the naked eye. The bangs were the most deafening heard in Beirut in years, some said.
Some residents rushed to open the windows of their houses to prevent the glass from being broken by the loud bangs. Others stood on their balconies to watch the planes fly overhead.
A Reuters reporter said he saw people sitting in a cafe in the capital’s Bandaro district scatter as the sound echoed across the city.
Speech by the leader of Hezbollah
In the southern suburbs of the capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah, members and supporters of the Lebanese armed group had gathered to watch a video speech by Nasrallah. As he began his speech, the Hezbollah leader said the overflights were aimed at provoking those gathered for the memorial service.
The Israeli military has not yet commented on these flights.
Earlier today, the Lebanese group said it had launched a series of drone and missile strikes in northern Israel, warning that it has yet to proceed with long-awaited retaliation for Israel’s killing of its top commander last week.
Hezbollah said it fired a series of drones at two military targets near the northern Israeli city of Acre and attacked an Israeli army vehicle at another location.
The Israeli military said a number of enemy drones were spotted entering from Lebanon and one of them was intercepted.
Seven injured in Israel
Israeli medical officials said seven people were taken to hospital, south of the coastal town of Nahariya, with one in critical condition.
In images released by Reuters, a crater appears to have formed near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.
In a statement, the Israeli military said air raid sirens sounded around Acre, but this turned out to be a false alarm. He also said the Air Force hit two Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has vowed to respond to Shukr’s killing, which came just hours before Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was killed in Tehran in an operation blamed on Israel by its enemies. The Jewish state has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the Haniya murder.
A Hezbollah source told Reuters that “the answer to the killing of commander Fouad Shukr has not yet come.”
Earlier today, six Hezbollah fighters were killed in a strike on a house in the Lebanese town of Maifantoun, nearly 30 km north of the border, rescuers and a security source said.
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