The airstrikes on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, an area where Hezbollah holds sway, were some of the heaviest since a U.S.-brokered cease-fire came into effect in November.
Israel launched a large wave of airstrikes in the densely populated neighborhoods south of Beirut on Thursday, targeting what it said were underground drone production facilities operated by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The bombardment marked one of the heaviest on Beirut’s southern outskirts, known as the Dahiya, since a U.S.-brokered cease-fire took effect in November, ending Lebanon’s deadliest and most destructive war in decades.
The Israeli military accused Hezbollah in a statement of deliberately constructing the drone production sites in civilian areas, and said their existence constituted a violation of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
The agreement, brokered by the Biden administration, called for Hezbollah’s disarmament along with Israel’s withdrawal from the country’s south, the area bordering Israel that was a Hezbollah stronghold before the war.
However, Israel and Lebanon have both accused one another of failing to fully implement the deal.
Before the bombardment on Thursday, the Israeli military ordered residents of three areas in the Dahiya, a tightly packed cluster of neighborhoods where Hezbollah holds sway, to evacuate from the vicinity of buildings it had highlighted on a map posted to social media.
Hoping to deter the airstrikes, the Lebanese military attempted to inspect the buildings flagged by Israel, and had contacted the U.S.-led cease-fire monitoring committee formed after the war, according to a senior Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
