Lebanese rescuers search the site of the deadly Israeli attack as Hezbollah fires rockets

BARJA, Lebanon – Lebanese rescuers searched a destroyed apartment building south of Beirut on Wednesday for bodies or survivors after a deadly Israeli attack the night before, as the firefight between Israel and the armed group Hezbollah continued.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired a volley of rockets at an Israeli military base near Ben Gurion Airport. Sirens sounded in northern and central Israel and Israeli media reported that a rocket had landed near the airport.

The airport authority said it was continuing operations as usual and Israel’s largest airline El Al said none of its planes were damaged by rockets that struck near central Israel.

Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged hostilities for over a year in parallel to the Gaza war, but fighting has escalated significantly since late September, with Israeli forces intensifying bombardments of parts of southern Lebanon and ground incursions in border villages.

Tuesday’s strike on Barja hit a multi-storey apartment building on a hilltop, tearing off parts of the floors and exposing interior walls and stairs.

Lebanon’s health ministry said just before midnight that the strike had killed 20 people and injured 14, but said the toll could still rise.

Moussa Zahran, who lived on one of the top floors of the building, returned Wednesday morning to search the ruins of his home. His burned feet were wrapped in gauze and his son and wife were in hospital after being injured in the strike.

“These bricks you see here weigh 100 kilos, they fell on a 13 kilo child,” he said, referring to his son and the apartment wall that collapsed on him during the attack.

STRIKES ON NABATIEH

It was not immediately clear whether the attack targeted a Hezbollah member. There was no evacuation warning prior to the airstrike.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched attacks on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh after issuing evacuation orders for specific neighborhoods in the city. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the past year, the vast majority in the past six weeks. The Barja attack was one of the deadliest single attacks.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a 60-day truce proposed by the US faltered last week, and Lebanese feared the war could escalate further after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Israel Katz as his new defense minister.

Katz vowed Tuesday to “defeat” Hezbollah so people displaced from northern Israel could return home.

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri – a Hezbollah ally and diplomatic interlocutor – met with the US and Saudi ambassadors to Lebanon on Wednesday to discuss political developments, his office said, without providing further details.

Lebanon’s interim prime minister, meanwhile, congratulated the “president-elect” in the US, without mentioning Donald Trump by name.

Netanyahu cheered Trump’s election, while senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump would be tested on his claims that as president he can stop the war in Gaza within hours. REUTERS