South Beirut stunned after deadly strike in residential area
BEIRUT: A large hole is gaping in a three-storey building and debris litters the street amid charred cars in south Beirut where a strike blamed on the Zionist entity killed the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas. The day after loud blasts ripped through the district from the drone attack that killed Saleh Al-Aruri, armed men of Hezbollah were standing guard in the mainly Shiite Muslim area that is their stronghold.
Locals said they were surprised to learn that their busy street in the Lebanese capital housed the secretive Hamas bureau in a non-descript building next to a pharmacy and a sweets shop. The Zionist entity has not claimed the deadly attack but Hamas and Lebanese officials have no doubt it was the Zionist entity who killed Aruri and six Hamas operatives.
Although associated with Hezbollah, Beirut’s southern suburbs are also an overcrowded residential area packed with civilians, shops and restaurants. “No one knew that there was a Hamas office here,” said Ahmed, 40, who works in the nearby sweets shop. “I heard three explosions, at first I thought it was thunder,” he told AFP in disbelief.
Shopkeepers were sweeping glass shards off the road near the impact site on Hadi Nasrallah street, named after Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah’s late son, who was killed in fighting with the Zionist entity in 1997. The Lebanese army cordoned off the perimeter and Hezbollah militants dressed in black civilian clothing kept watch nearby. “Three (Zionist) drone strikes targeted the building,” said a Hezbollah official who requested anonymity citing security concerns.
Rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah rummaged through the remains of cars damaged or charred by the strikes, in an empty lot facing the building. “I was at the dentist’s, a few meters away,” said resident Mohammad Burji, 46, who lambasted the Zionist entity for striking “in the middle of a residential area”. Beirut’s southern suburbs have “been caught in the past in a war of annihilation, just like Gaza,” he said, referring to the Zionist attack on Lebanon in 2006. Local police captain Ali Farran said residents who have lived through the 2006 war “are now expecting the worst”, adding that the predominantly Shiite Muslim area is home to 800,000 people.