BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fears grew across Lebanon on Monday after Israel launched a strike on a residential building in central Beirut, marking a fresh escalation in a devastating bombing campaign that local officials say has already killed more than 1,000 people.
“There’s no safe place guaranteed in Lebanon,” Jihan Kaisi, the executive director of the Union of Relief and Development Association, an organization helping displaced people across the country, said.
As many as 1 million people have been driven from their homes during the latest violence, according to Lebanon’s prime minister.
“The Cola area is crowded with families, with displaced families who came to this area thinking it’s safe,” Kaisi told NBC News after the Israeli strike hit a building in the city’s densely populated district just a stone’s throw from downtown Beirut.
“We were shocked this area was bombed,” she said of the strike, which appeared to mark Israel’s first attack on the capital’s center since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Palestinian militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said early Monday morning that three of its members were killed in the strike in central Beirut, where humanitarian workers said many civilians had sought shelter, believing the Lebanese capital’s center to be safe from Israel’s bombardments.
The targeted building was heavily damaged across two floors, with the windows of vehicles outside smashed and rubble scattered on all over the street. Residents rushed to clear away debris from storefronts, some using broomsticks, while others used their bare hands.
Meanwhile in southern Lebanon, an Israeli official told NBC News that Israeli forces had begun launching small special forces operations ahead of a potential ground offensive.
The official said the operations were designed to gather intelligence and probe Hezbollah’s positions, though they cautioned that the forays have been taking place for months and do not necessarily signal an imminent ground assault.
Washington continued to urge against further escalation amid efforts to avoid an all-out war in the region.
Israel says its campaign in Lebanon is aimed at ensuring the safe return and long-term security of communities in northern Israel who have been displaced from their homes during nearly a year of mounting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that has vowed to continue striking Israel until it ends its war in Gaza. Thousands of families in southern Lebanon have also been displaced from their homes over the past year due to the cross-border attacks.
Israel’s aerial campaign in Lebanon has so far killed more than 1,000 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, with Hezbollah’s own leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on Friday, sending shockwaves across the region, with Iran vowing revenge.
Sleeping on streets
Meanwhile, as many as 1 million people have been displaced from their homes, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said, with a growing numbers of families forced to create makeshift shelters on streets and beaches as images emerging from southern Lebanon show mounting destruction of areas once populated by civilians.
Fatima, 32, who delivered a newborn baby just days ago, said she and her family had fled from the south to central Beirut over the weekend in hopes of finding safety there. But after struggling to find shelter, she said they were forced to sleep on the street. “It was terrible,” said Fatima, who asked that her last name be withheld due to concerns for her safety. “I’m unable to feed my baby who is crying constantly,” she said, adding that she was also in pain and feared that the surgical wound from her caesarean section had become infected.
“I need medical help and we’re waiting to see which shelter will take us in and maybe we will get some kind of assistance and food,” she said.
“Look at our situation,” Nayef Fouani, who has, along with hundreds of others, been sheltering in the Azarieh commercial center in Beirut. “We were having dinner. The food is still on the table,” he said, of having to abruptly flee from his home in the city’s southern suburbs.
“Well, eventually, we’re all going to die one day,” he said.
‘No safe place’
Kaisi, the executive director of URDA, said humanitarian workers were “shocked” by the strike in Cola.
Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, where she is currently based, Kaisi said civilians displaced by Israeli airstrikes and sheltering in the city of Saida, or Sidon, had also been left terrified after a deadly airstrike in the area on Sunday. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike on Monday.Thousands of families, Kaisi said, had been sheltering in Saida under the belief that they were safe there, with many taking refuge in overcrowded schools transformed into shelters, while others had little choice but to sleep in the streets and in parking lots and school playgrounds.
And she said she feared what might lie ahead for them if Israel’s bombing campaign does not end, with a growing number of people expressing fears that Lebanon could eventually become like Gaza, where more than 41,500 people have been killed during Israel’s nearly yearlong offensive in the enclave.
“There’s talk that Lebanon might face the same situation,” she said. “Families are scared.”