Israel strikes Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel on Friday launched an attack on Lebanon's capital for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November.

Associated Press reporters in Beirut heard a loud boom and witnessed smoke rising from an area in the city's southern suburbs that Israel's military had vowed to strike.

It marked Israel's first strike on Beirut since a ceasefire took hold last November between it and the Hezbollah militant group, though Israel has attacked targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then.

Israel’s army said it hit a Hezbollah drone storage facility in Dahiyeh, which it called a militant stronghold. The strike came after Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields, warned residents to evacuate the area.

The area struck is a residential and commercial area and is close to at least two schools.

Israel sends a message to the Lebanese government

Israeli officials said the attack was retaliation for rockets it said were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. They promised strikes on Beirut would continue unless Lebanon's government worked to ensure such attacks ceased.

“We will not allow firing at our communities, not even a trickle,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We will attack everywhere in Lebanon, against any threat to the State of Israel."

Hezbollah denied firing the rockets, and accused Israel of seeking a pretext to continue attacking Lebanon.

Lebanon’s government ordered all schools and universities in Beirut’s southern suburb of Hadath to close for the day. Residents were seen fleeing the area in cars and on foot ahead of the strike.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by its Hamas allies ignited the war in Gaza. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 in Israel and abducted 251 others during the 2023 attack.

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict exploded into all-out war last September when Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.

Under the ceasefire, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January. The deadline was extended to Feb. 18, but Israel has remained in five border locations while carrying out dozens of strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon. Last week, Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Lebanon killed six people.

France criticizes failure to observe ceasefire

Speaking in Paris, Lebanon’s President, Joseph Aoun, said the Beirut area strike was a continuation “of Israel’s violations of the agreement” sponsored by France and the U.S.

During a joint news conference with Aoun, French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “unacceptable,” and promised to address it with Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. Macron said that the U.S. can exert pressure on Israel.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman called on Lebanon's government to act.

“Israel is defending its people and interests by responding to rocket attacks from terrorists in Lebanon," the spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said Friday. “We expect the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm these terrorists to prevent further hostilities.”

The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the escalation had created "a critical period for Lebanon and the wider region.”

Israeli strikes in other parts of Lebanon on Friday killed three people and wounded 18, including children and women, in the southern village of Kfar Tibnit, said Lebanon's health ministry.

The strikes comes less than two weeks after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas with surprise strikes that killed hundreds of people in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns 59 hostages it still holds — 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is demanding that the group give up power, disarm and send its leaders into exile.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel's offensive in the Strip has killed over 50,000 people and wounded 114,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants.

The ministry said Friday that nearly 900 have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire ended in mid-March, including more than 40 over the past 24 hours.

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Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war