More than a dozen killed in Israeli strikes near Beirut hospital

Israeli air strikes in and around Beirut have caused significant damage to the country’s largest public hospital and killed more than a dozen people, Lebanese health officials said.

Hezbollah later launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, hours before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 57 others were injured in air strikes late on Monday that destroyed several buildings facing the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut.

Complicity

The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and said that it had not targeted the hospital itself.

The US State Department said that Mr Blinken would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s chief spokesman said the group was behind the weekend drone attack that targeted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house without inflicting casualties.

Mohammed Afif told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that if in the previous attack Mr Netanyahu was not hurt, “the coming days and nights and the (battle) fields are between us”.

Mr Afif was hinting that Hezbollah might carry out such attempts in the future.

He said Hezbollah is fully responsible for the drone attack that targeted Mr Netanyahu’s house, insisting that the group acted on its own.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said the drone on Saturday targeted his house in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife was there. It was not clear if the house was hit.

Violation

Human rights group Amnesty International has criticised Israel’s targeting of branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial institution, saying the round of strikes this week “likely violates international humanitarian law”.

Amnesty said the attack on al-Qard al-Hassan must be investigated as a war crime because financial institutions are considered civilian infrastructure under the laws of war unless they are being used for military purposes.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said: “Even if as the Israeli military alleges, the institution does provide financing to Hezbollah, it is not likely to meet the definition of a military objective, particularly for branches serving civilian customers.”

Israel’s strikes overnight Sunday into Monday hit at least 15 branches of al-Qard al-Hassan in Lebanon. Israel says the bank is used to fund attacks, and it issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. Many ordinary Lebanese keep their savings at the financial institution.