Zionist entity attacks Beirut’s suburbs, killing three people

BEIRUT: The Zionist entity struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, killing three people while its military also carried out broader strikes on southern Lebanon.

The latest escalation came amid expectations that a deal between the United States and Iran to end the Middle East war could be imminent, but Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said there was “no point” in continuing peace talks with Washington after the strike. Tehran insists a ceasefire in Lebanon must be part of any deal.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a strike hit an apartment in the Ghobeiry neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs. An AFP correspondent saw smoke and dust rising near a heavily damaged apartment as debris covered the street and people searched for survivors, with panic in the area after the strike along a busy road filled with shops.

Lebanon’s civil defense agency reported three dead and six wounded.

The Zionist entity’s officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said the Zionist entity would strike south Beirut if Iran-backed Hezbollah targets the Zionist entity, a position they say has the backing of Washington. The Zionist entity’s military earlier Sunday said three suspected Hezbollah drones struck the Zionist entity in separate incidents, causing no casualties. Hezbollah on Sunday claimed several attacks on Zionist troops who have invaded south Lebanon, but none on the Zionist entity.

‘Test’

The Zionist entity’s military had struck Beirut’s southern suburbs last week after saying it had intercepted rockets launched by Hezbollah into the Zionist entity. Iran launched missiles towards the Zionist entity in response to that attack, triggering Zionist strikes before both sides halted fire. Iran had repeatedly warned it would strike the Zionist entity if the Lebanese capital was targeted.

Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that the military “carried out strikes in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut against terrorist targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, in response to Hezbollah’s firing toward (the Zionist entity’s) territory.” The Zionist entity’s military said it “conducted a precise strike on a Hezbollah command center” in the area.

Two Zionist ministers earlier Sunday had called for strikes. “The shooting at northern communities is a test of the Dahiyeh Doctrine that the prime minister declared. I call on him to implement it decisively and firmly, and to bring down buildings in Dahiyeh,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X. “For every drone — a missile; for every violation — fire; for every UAV — Dahiyeh must tremble,” wrote National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on X.

A senior Iranian military official meanwhile warned that the Zionist entity’s strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs would not go “unanswered” by Tehran. “Without a doubt, these crimes will not go unanswered,” Brigadier General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Iran’s highest military command, told Defa Press news agency.

Lebanon’s NNA also reported Zionist strikes on more than 20 locations in the country’s south, including the city of Nabatieh. The strikes came both before and after the Zionist entity’s army issued evacuation warnings for almost 30 south Lebanon locations ahead of raids there. The Zionist entity’s military activity in recent days has been focused on the region around Nabatieh.

Direct talks

A military source told AFP on Sunday that a small Lebanese army force which had been present in Kfar Tibnit, near Nabatieh, evacuated its position there a day earlier after a Zionist invasion of the village. Requesting anonymity, the source emphasized that the Lebanese army was however still present at the Nabatieh barracks. An AFP correspondent saw around a dozen vehicles, including some military trucks and heavy machinery as well as civilian vehicles, heading out of Nabatieh on Sunday. The Zionist entity’s airstrikes and ground invasion of Lebanon have killed more than 3,700 people since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities.

Complaint

Lebanon’s foreign ministry said it had lodged a complaint with the United Nations over the Zionist entity’s alleged spraying of herbicide glyphosate in Lebanese territory near the border earlier this year. In a statement circulated on Sunday, the ministry said it had sent a letter to the UN Security Council and the UN secretary-general this week to complain about the incident, which occurred in February, a month before the latest war which erupted on March 2.

The ministry said “laboratory tests and chemical analyses carried out on soil samples” in the south Lebanon border villages of Aita Al-Shaab, Ras Naqura and Dhayra “confirmed the use of glyphosate at high levels of concentration.” It said the levels “greatly exceed” those usually found in agricultural areas after regular use by farmers.

The statement said the complaint was based on a report from Lebanon’s government-linked National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS). At the time, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said the Zionist entity had notified it of its plans to spray a “non-toxic chemical substance” near the border and had warned peacekeepers to take shelter.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun had denounced the spraying as a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime against the environment and health.”

The ministry statement also said Lebanon had complained to the Security Council about ongoing Zionist attacks on Lebanon, including the targeting of a Lebanese army vehicle earlier this month that killed two on-duty officers and a soldier. — AFP