In the early hours of this Monday, the heart of Beirut suffered an unprecedented bombing since the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It was in Cola, a roundabout with numerous public transport connections – such as buses or shared vans – until now considered the outside of Israeli attacks, being next to a Sunni stronghold, Tariq Al Yadid. The bombing has killed at least four people, three of them members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has also announced the death of its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu al Amin, along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, in an aerial bombardment against their home in the Al Bass refugee camp, in the south. of the country. Hours later, the number two of Hezbollah, Naim Qasem, has been the first leader of the organization to speak since Israel assassinated its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, on Friday. In a speech recorded in an unidentified location, he promised to “win” a war that “could be long” and asked the population for unity at a difficult time: “We are all in the same boat.”
In Cola, the bombed building is guarded this morning by Armed Forces vehicles, next to the debris that has fallen on car hoods. The image shows a very selective attack: the projectile destroyed the walls of the fourth floor of a 10-story building, without knocking down the pillars and leaving a hole in the middle.
Selective, but novel. The Israeli bombings had been focusing on Dahiye (the Shiite suburb of Beirut where Israel killed Nasrallah), in southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, on the border with Syria, so it has put fear into the body to the neighbors. Like Mohamed Al Hoss, 41, who lives two numbers from the bombed building and saw the windows of his house blown by the blast wave. “A drone had been ringing all day. Suddenly, around one in the morning, he stopped doing it. Two minutes later, a huge explosion sounded. The sound was not normal. I thought at first that the bridge had been bombed [de tráfico elevado] because the game is not here [Hezbolá] nor strange people. The last thing I would have thought was that it was a building,” he says, still wearing home clothes.
His children, he says, left the house and stayed on the street at dawn, because they did not dare to return. At dawn he convinced them to return and now he feels guilty, after months reassuring the 13-year-old. “She was the most worried about what could happen and I always told her: ‘it’s okay, we are very far from where they are bombing.’ Now I feel like I’ve been lying to him all this time.”
Marwa Al Yamal, 39, also feels guilty. He runs a pharmacy on the same roundabout, a few dozen meters from the bombed building, and he also used to reassure the employee who was on night duty when the missile hit. “I never thought anything would happen here. You already know what this area is like politically, it is a safe place,” he points out as he discovers that the explosion has left two light bulbs hanging.
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The Israeli army has not yet commented on the bombing in the center of Beirut. He has, however, acknowledged his responsibility for the death of the Hamas leader in Lebanon. And it has also stated that its warplanes have destroyed dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley overnight, including rocket launchers and weapons depots. It has also confirmed having attacked targets in the south of the country, from where the militia launches most of its projectiles against northern Israel in the crossfire they have maintained since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. The planes bomb every few hours Dahiye since the weekend. They also fly over the main entry points of the city, such as the Beirut civil airport, the ports or the border with Syria.
In this context of attacks in Beirut, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant once again clearly suggested this Monday that Israeli troops are preparing for a ground incursion into Lebanon. “We will use all our capabilities. If someone on the other side does not understand what these capabilities mean, they are all of them, and you are part of this effort,” the minister proclaimed in a brief speech given in front of soldiers stationed on Israel’s northern border.
The three dead Palestinians in Cola
For its part, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has identified its three dead in the Cola bombing as Imad Audi; its leader in Lebanon; Mohamed Abdel Aa, member of his political office and head of his military security; and Abdel Rahman Abdel Raa, militiaman. With a Marxist-Leninist and pan-Arabist ideology, the Front was founded in 1967 by George Habash and played a prominent role decades ago, but went into decline with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of Hamas.
Both its political and military branches are included on the list of foreign terrorist organizations of the European Union and the United States. In the past, its members have carried out numerous attacks and kidnappings against Israeli military and civilian targets. The most famous, between 1968 and 1972, against international airlines. In 2001, the then Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Rehavam Zeevi, a far-right who advocated ethnic cleansing, was also assassinated in Jerusalem in response to that of his then Secretary General, Abu Ali Mustafa. Its armed wing, which bears the name of that murdered leader, is still active in Gaza, where it has sometimes fought Israel along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but today it is already a minor organization.
“As soon as possible”
After the dawn of bombings, the speech of the number two of Hezbollah. It was very brief and announced shortly before its broadcast by Hezbollah’s television network, Al Manar, as usual. From an unknown location and with a closet in the background, Qasem has tried to reassure his people after the harsh blows received (he is one of the few commanders alive, according to Israel). He has assured that the group has “alternatives and replacements for any position” and that he will appoint a new general secretary “as soon as possible.”
He has also tried to lift spirits. Israel, he said, “has not been able to reach the military capabilities” of the organization, which remain “strong and large” and allow it to sustain a war “that could be long.” “Israelis are often driven mad by their inability to achieve these capabilities.” […] If the enemy decides to enter by land, our forces are prepared for battle. We are sure that Israel will not achieve its objectives […] “We will win like we won in 2006,” he said, referring to the conflict that elevated Hezbollah to a myth in the Arab world for holding its own against the much superior Israel for 34 days and killing 121 of its soldiers.
Qasem has not ignored the context: the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, the more than a thousand deaths in two weeks, the unrest with Hezbollah in some sectors due to the impact on a ruined and divided country of its confrontation with Israel… For this reason, he has addressed directly to the general population with a phrase: “We are in the same boat.” Sayyed Hassan [Nasralá] He used to say that he considered people to be our heart and soul. I am sure that this beloved people, who have suffered a lot, will not be agitated.”
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