[News] Five killed as Israel bombs southern suburbs of Beirut despite ceasefire

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 News <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/>|Israel attacks Lebanon
<https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-lebanon/>
Five killed as Israel bombs southern suburbs of Beirut despite ceasefire

*Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Hezbollah’s chief of staff was
the target in the attack – the latest violation of a year-old ceasefire.*
[image: Attack on Lebanon]
People look at the debris after a Israeli military strike on a residential
building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs on
November 23, 2025 [Ibrahim Amro/AFP]

<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458>

By Al Jazeera Staff
<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458>
Published On 23 Nov 2025

The Israeli military has launched an attack on the southern suburbs of the
Lebanese capital Beirut, killing at least five people and wounding 28
others, Lebanon’s health ministry says, calling it a “final toll”.

Sunday’s strike on an apartment block in the Hezbollah stronghold of
Dahiyeh took place despite a ceasefire
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/19/despite-ceasefires-in-gaza-and-lebanon-the-war-isnt-over-for-netanyahu>
that came into effect a year ago to end hostilities that had erupted into a
full-blown war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hezbollah’s chief
of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai was the target. Israeli media said it was
the military’s third attempt to kill him since last year’s war.

Hezbollah has yet to confirm if he was injured or killed.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that two missiles
were fired at the apartment building on al-Arid Street in Haret Hreik
neighbourhood of Dahiyeh, and significant damage was inflicted on cars and
surrounding buildings.

Ambulances arrived immediately at the scene and transported the injured to
nearby hospitals, it said. A large plume of smoke could be seen in the busy
neighbourhood, according to the local media.

One video widely circulated on social media showed dozens of people crowded
around the area of the strike.
[image: Israeli attack on Beirut]People gather around the residential
building hit in an Israeli military strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood
[Ibrahim Amro/AFP]

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said a senior Hezbollah
source told her a senior commander of the group was the target.

“There’s still no confirmation, but the very fact that this Israeli strike
happened without an evacuation order, without a prior warning if you will,
really suggests that they were after a high profile figure or a high-value
target,” she said.

“Israel said the person killed was Haytham Ali Tabatabai. He is believed to
be the number two of the movement, one of the founding members of the
organisation. A very keen military figure; a man wanted by the United
States, which designated him as a terrorist. There’s a $5m bounty on his
whereabouts,” she added, calling the Israeli attack “a major security
breach”.
‘Means of exerting pressure’

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to
intervene firmly to stop the Israeli attacks on the country.

In a statement on Sunday, Aoun said Lebanon “reiterates its call to the
international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly
and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Souhaib Jawher, a nonresident fellow at the
Alternative Policy Institute, said of the possible target: “I believe that
Tabatabai was the one reorganising Hezbollah’s military leadership, and the
targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut is an indication that the
Lebanese state has no guarantees against the expansion of such attacks.”

He said it is “a means of exerting pressure, and there is no destructive
decision that constitutes a ground invasion as long as the atmosphere is
open to bombing and assassination”.

“Lebanon has offered everything, including clearing the area south of the
Litani River of weapons and agreeing to direct negotiations. The president
presented an initiative two days ago, but the current situation benefits
Israel,” Souhaib added on Sunday.

Israel assassinated longtime leader
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/28/hassan-nasrallah-hezbollah-leader-killed-in-beirut-in-israeli-strike>
Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on southern Beirut just over a year ago.



   - [image: Rising Israeli attacks cast doubt on regional peace
   initiatives]
   Rising Israeli attacks cast doubt on regional peace initiatives

Sunday’s strike came only days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit
the country amid intensified Israeli aggression in recent weeks.

Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said Israel has been striking all of Lebanon since
the ceasefire agreement was brokered by the United States about a year ago.

“Every attack on Lebanon is a crossing of a red line, and this aggression
is inherent in the entity that targets Lebanon’s dignity, sovereignty, and
the security of its citizens,” he said.
Repeated Israeli attacks

Israel has been carrying out near-daily strikes on southern Lebanon and has
also attacked Beirut several times, but the capital had not been hit in the
past several months.

At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian
refugee camp
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/18/israeli-attack-on-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon-kills-at-least-13>
in southern Lebanon this week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public
Health.

A drone hit a car on Tuesday in the car park of a mosque in the Ein
el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the
state-run NNA reported.

Israel and the US have been piling the pressure on Lebanon to disarm
Hezbollah.

The Lebanese military issued a plan that the government approved in
September that would disarm Hezbollah across the country by the end of the
year. Hezbollah has refused to do so while Israel continues to bomb the
country and occupy parts of the south.

Israel has said Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its military capabilities in
southern Lebanon whereas the Lebanese government has denied those claims.
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