Israel’s military chief and the head of its Shin Bet security agency held a security assessment inside southern Lebanon yesterday, the IDF has said.
“We continue to operate against the enemy and will not stop until we ensure that we can safely return the residents [evacuated from the north], not just now, but with a future outlook,” said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi in a video of the gathering released by the military.
“If anyone considers rebuilding these villages again, they will know that it’s not worth constructing terrorist infrastructure because the IDF will neutralise them again.”
Ronen Bar, who heads the Shin Bet, said that “on a peaceful border, defence is on one side; on a wartime border, defence must be on both sides of the border with freedom of action”.
Eyewitness: Israeli attack has Beirut residents wondering if anywhere in capital is still safe
By Alex Rossi, international correspondent, in Beirut
The residential district in central Beirut where the airstrike hit is claustrophobic.
The buildings that still stand around the site of destruction are about seven to eight storeys tall.
This area was packed with people when it was attacked.
In many ways, it’s surprising the death toll is not even higher. The nearby hospitals are crowded with the injured – many of them seriously.
It’s reported that Israel was trying to assassinate a Hezbollah leader, Wafiq Safa, who is the head of liaison and coordination for the group. His fate is unclear, though Hezbollah sources have told Sky News that he survived.
Many of the civilians in and around the building did not.
We watched as search and rescue workers scoured through the rubble. The chance of finding any survivors is remote.
The building is just a mass of debris. Some of the walls of the buildings nearby have been blown out.
You can look in at the lives destroyed by this explosion. Family portraits still hang on the walls.
We met Ibrahim as he packed up his things to move away from the area.
He’s fearful about what comes next.
“What do you want me to tell you? What happened was extremely scary. The sound was so loud, the building started to shake as if it was an earthquake,” he said.
“Now we came back to take our stuff and go stay by the seaside.”
The attack on this area is a significant escalation by Israel. It was thought to be relatively safe – away from the Hezbollah stronghold, Dahieh, in southern Beirut.
In fact, many of the families that were here at the time of the airstrikes had fled those areas hoping to find sanctuary.
The fact they did not has left many people now wondering, is anywhere still safe in the capital?
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