Anger simmered Tuesday after Israel struck a southern Beirut suburb that is also a Hezbollah stronghold, with young men chanting in support of the group at the site of the strike.
Israel hit Hezbollah’s stronghold in retaliation for rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 children over the weekend in the occupied Golan Heights, saying it had targeted the commander responsible for the attack.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw an eight-storey building that had partially collapsed in the strike, while ambulances struggled through crowds and rescue workers combed through the rubble for survivors.
In nearby streets, the impact of the blast smashed the windows of dozens of cars and shop facades.
Young men gathered at the site amid dust and broken glass shards, chanting “We are at your service, Nasrallah”, a reference to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah security quickly cordoned off the site of the strike, while ambulances transported the wounded.
Mohammed Alaam, 27, who lives half a kilometre (0.3 miles) from the site of the strike, said he was at home when he heard two explosions.
“We looked out the balcony and saw smoke… They said there had been a strike,” he said, adding that “people were running to donate blood”.
“People are angry, but you don’t see anyone who is afraid. Everyone was expecting a strike,” he said.
“They are now demanding retaliation”.
– ‘Chaos’ –
On Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to deliver a “severe response” to the strike that Israel has blamed on Hezbollah, which said it had “no connection” to the incident.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that senior commander Fuad Shukr, who is leading the group’s operations against Israel in south Lebanon, survived the strike.
In 2017, the US Treasury offered $5 million for information on Shukr, describing him as “a senior adviser” to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and saying he had “a central role” in the deadly 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
Lebanon’s healthy ministry said Wednesday that three people, including two children, had been killed in the strike that also left 74 injured, updating an earlier toll.
An emergency worker at Bahman hospital told AFP the facility received “a large number of injured people, some of them in critical condition,” describing “chaos in the emergency room”.
