Israel Intensifies Strikes on Beirut, Escalating Its Campaign Against Hezbollah

The Israeli military widened its attacks to the districts in the center of the Lebanese capital, destroying buildings, forcing residents to flee and killing at least 10.

The first Israeli airstrikes hit the Lebanese capital around 1:30 a.m., destroying two floors of one apartment building in the center of Beirut.

Soon after, another strike tore through a building nearby, blasting an apartment and sending slabs of concrete crashing through car windshields on the street below.

Just before dawn, one more strike brought another building down in massive plumes of black smoke.

A few hours later, yet another split the air, ripping through an apartment and setting an adjacent building on fire.

“We rushed outside the house with nothing, only our pajamas,” said Samira Osseili, 60, whose apartment in the Beirut neighborhood, Bachoura, is next to the building that collapsed in the strike.

“I don’t know how I left,” she added.

The strikes on central Beirut Wednesday morning on neighborhoods once considered safe, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. It was the first time Israel destroyed an entire building in the center of the city since the start of the war.

Since the latest outbreak of war between Hezbollah and Israel earlier this month, most Israeli airstrikes have targeted Dahiya, a densely populated area on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, as well as in eastern and southern Lebanon. But Israel has started to strike central Beirut more frequently, often without issuing a warning as it had ahead of previous attacks. Israeli officials say they target Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel in Beirut.

That bombardment intensified early Wednesday morning, with the series of strikes that killed at least 10 people and injured 27 more, according to Lebanese health ministry, bringing the total death toll to 968. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the building that collapsed. It did not issue warnings for the other strikes in central Beirut on Wednesday morning.

The strikes shook the Lebanese capital as Israel reissued evacuation warnings for much of southern Lebanon, expanding beyond the bounds of previous warnings. The Israeli military also warned that it would attack bridges across the Litani River, in what it said was an effort to prevent Hezbollah from moving reinforcements and combat equipment to areas in southern Lebanon where Israel had sent in ground forces.

It also came days after the Israeli military dropped leaflets over central Beirut calling on people to confront Hezbollah. For some in Lebanon, the Israeli actions have evoked echoes of how Israel carried out its military campaign in Gaza.

“Have you seen what happened in Gaza? It will be the same here,” said Hassan Jawad, 40, who lives in an apartment near the collapsed building in the Bachoura district of central Beirut. Israel said the building had been used by Hezbollah.

An hour after the strike, Mr. Jawad stood across from the destroyed building. All that remained of it was a pile of rubble with broken rebar poking through chunks of concrete. Dust and smoke hung in the air. Nearby, municipal workers used excavators to clean debris from the roads.

Mr. Jawad had awakened to the sounds of strikes nearby hours earlier. After the Israeli military published an evacuation warning for the building on social media, he heard gunshots from his neighbors — an informal signal ahead of strikes. He woke up his wife, daughter and son, and the four sped out of the evacuation zone on his motorcycle.

“I think this war will be longer than the last one,” Mr. Jawad said, standing beside the rubble. “My father, my grandfather lived through times like this. Nothing ever changes, it’s happening over and over again.”

An hour after the strike, a Hezbollah member hoisted a large poster with the faces Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2024, and that of the Lebanese Army Chief, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal.

The poster was not so subtle messaging that reflects the political crisis that has engulfed Lebanon along with the Israeli-Hezbollah war. After the last war ended in a fragile cease-fire between both sides in 2024, the Lebanese Army was tasked with disarming Hezbollah.

Gen. Haykal, the army commander entrusted with that task, has been criticized by his political opponents for his cautious approach to doing so. But he has emerged as a champion among Hezbollah supporters who view the group as the country’s best defense against Israeli forces.

Nearby in the Fathallah area of Beirut, Hezbollah members cordoned off the road where another building had been hit. Crushed and burned cars sat on the side of the road, next to shreds of mattresses, bicycle tires and bits of clothes.

Abu Hussein, 67, who gave only his nickname because of security concerns, left his home on the outskirts of Dahiya about a week ago after Israel issued a sweeping evacuation warning for the area. He said he had fallen asleep on Tuesday night before waking up around 1:30 a.m. to the loud crash of the strike.

“I was very scared, it happened right in front of us,” he recalled. He said his 82-year-old aunt started screaming as his building shook. “It’s different from fighting in the street, the danger comes suddenly, from the sky,” he said.

Abu Hussein said he left the area on foot, with his aunt, because the street was so littered with broken concrete and glass that it was impossible to ride his motorcycle.

“Beirut is not safe anymore, absolutely not,” he said, standing beside the building that was hit later on Wednesday. Collecting his things, he said he planned to leave the city for a town further north, Jbeil, where he has relatives.

As he walked away from the smoldering building, the thunderous clap of another airstrike roared overhead.

The strike, the second in Beirut’s central Zuqaq al-Blat district on Wednesday, set the upper floors of an adjacent building on fire, sending plumes of thick smoke into the sky. Minutes after the strike, ambulances raced down the road to evacuate and treat the injured.

The blast sent a metal fragment through the storefront of Hassan Husseiny’s bakery, shattering the glass. Afterward, Mr. Husseiny, 46, stood inside his shop sweeping up the shards.

The strike was the third to hit their neighborhood since the war began.

“We don’t feel safe here anymore,” he said. “But what can I do? I have to stay, I have to keep working, I have to earn a living.”

His wife, Maysaa Abdul Hamid, 45, stood inside with their 17-year-old son, surveying the damage.

“They’re destroying everything,” she said, referring to Israel. “We’re just holding on, trying to hold on, to our neighborhood.”

Abdi Latif Dahir, Hwaida Saad and John Yoon contributed reporting.

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