(CNN) โ Israel has launched a strike on Beirut for the second time in days, further testing the shaky ceasefire with Hezbollah struck four months ago.
Lebanonโs Health Ministry said four people were killed, including a woman, and seven injured in the strike early Tuesday, which Israel said had targeted a Hezbollah militant.
Two missiles hit the top three floors of a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanonโs national news agency NNA reported. Witnesses told Reuters that no evacuation warning was issued ahead of the strike and that families who lived there have now fled to other parts of the city.
Israelโs military said in a statement the militant had allegedly โrecently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.โ
Lebanonโs President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack. โIsraelโs persistence in its aggression requires us to exert more effort to address Lebanonโs friends around the world and rally them in support of our right to full sovereignty over our land,โ he said.
Israelโs military said in a statement it had struck and killed Hezbollah โterrorist Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir.โ
โBdeir recently operated in cooperation with the Hamas terrorist organization, directed Hamas terrorists, and assisted them in planning and advancing a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians,โ the statement said, adding that Hezbollah militantsโ activities violate the โunderstandings between Israel and Lebanon.โ
The US State Department said Tuesday that Israel was defending itself from cross-border fire from Lebanon.
โHostilities have resumed because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon,โ a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, adding that Washington supported Israelโs response.
The attack comes just days after Israel launched its first strike on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire with Hezbollah came into effect in November. Israel accused Hezbollah of launching two rocket attacks from southern Lebanon that crossed Israelโs border, a claim the Iran-backed group denied.
โWe will not allow firing on our communities, not even a drizzleโฆ We will attack everywhere in Lebanon against any threat to the state of Israel, and we will ensure that all our residents in the north return to their homes safely,โ said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
The Lebanese army called Fridayโs strike on the southern Dahieh neighborhood โa blatant and repeated violation of Lebanonโs sovereignty and the security of its citizens, a challenge to international law, and a flagrant breach of the ceasefire agreement.โ
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement brought about a significant reduction in violence following more than a year of cross-border strikes and months of a full-scale war.
However, Israel has continued to conducted dozens of strikes โ mostly in southern Lebanon โ on what it calls Hezbollah targets, and maintains a military presence at multiple locations in southern Lebanon, despite having agreed to withdraw as part of the deal.
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