Lebanon says 13 people have been killed in an Israeli attack near Beirut hospital

An Israeli airstrike near Lebanon’s largest public hospital in southern Beirut has killed at least 18 people, including four children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Another 60 people were injured when at least three buildings about 50 meters from Rafik Hariri University Hospital were destroyed in Jnah district on Monday evening.

The Health Ministry said the attack – one of at least 13 reported in the capital – caused “significant damage” to the hospital.

The Israeli army said it had struck a “Hezbollah terrorist target” near the hospital, without giving details, stressing that the hospital was not targeted and its operations were not affected.

It also accused Hezbollah of systematically entrenching its assets among the civilian population – a claim the armed group has previously denied.

The military had warned people to move away from several locations in southern Beirut about 15 minutes before the attack, but the area around the hospital was not among them.

A BBC producer who was close to the hospital at the time said a loud bang sent people running for cover. Paramedics and firefighters found local residents in distress at the scene.

On Tuesday morning, rescuers searched the piles of broken concrete and twisted metal, some with shovels, others only with bare hands, at the site of the attack.

The location hit was an impoverished and densely populated neighborhood. At least three multi-storey buildings collapsed and several others were severely damaged.

One of the rescuers said they did not know how many people would be under the rubble.

A BBC team watched one body being recovered, while another was located as they left.

One resident said the attack happened after a car arrived in the area, but added they could not say who may have driven in.

Videos from elsewhere in southern Beirut, where the Israeli army warned it would attack seven locations in advance, showed locals fleeing in vehicles and on foot as the attacks took place.

One location identified as a target by the Israeli military was about 400 meters from Beirut Airport, Lebanon’s only functioning commercial airport. Local media shared images of windows blown out by the blast.

The Israeli military said planes struck “Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, command centers and additional terror targets in Beirut.”

“Some of the targets were underground and included air and naval equipment used by Hezbollah to carry out terrorist attacks,” it added, without identifying the locations.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, without providing evidence, that the bunker contained hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. He also said Israel would not attack the hospital itself.

Doctors denied the Israeli accusation and took the BBC through the building on Tuesday, including to the first and second levels underground. They insisted there was nothing underneath.

“We are an institution that helps people,” said Dr. Walid Alameh, medical director of the hospital. “(The hospital) is private. It was that way in the past and it will remain that way. Hopefully (the Israelis) will believe us. What we do is help people.”

It appears that Israel has expanded its war against Hezbollah beyond its military infrastructure. On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they would target the group’s financial networks.

On Sunday evening, Israel carried out airstrikes on branches of a financial association linked to Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, as well as in the south and east of the country.

The Israeli military said it targeted money from the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association (AQAH), which provides financial services to civilians in areas where Hezbollah has strong support. Israel and the US accuse AQAH of being a front for the Iran-backed group to finance its activities.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif told reporters on Tuesday that AQAH had “expected such aggression”, adding that the organization would fulfill its obligations to depositors.

Also on Monday, US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the Middle East arrived in Beirut to explore the possibility of a negotiated end to the war.

Amos Hochstein said the US wanted to see an end to the war in Lebanon “as soon as possible”.

He warned that it is not in Lebanon’s interest to link its future to other conflicts in the region, a reference to Hezbollah’s close ties with Iran and its decision to support Hamas in the Gaza war.

He also said the old “status quo” was not sustainable and called for a “comprehensive agreement” that implemented UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

The resolution, which ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, called for southern Lebanon to be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and a UN peacekeeping force.

Israel has long complained that this formula failed to stop Hezbollah from building a formidable military presence in southern Lebanon and firing rockets across the border.

As Mr Hochstein spoke, Hezbollah fired more rockets into northern Israel, with the Israeli military reporting that 170 projectiles had crossed the border by late Monday.

According to the army, another 80 projectiles were fired into Israel on Tuesday. Four people were injured in the Neot Mordecai area.

Israel launched an intensive air campaign and ground invasion against Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by rocket attacks.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.

According to the Ministry of Health, more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 1,800 in the past five weeks. Israeli authorities say 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.