An apparent first Israeli airstrike in central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict hit a residential building early Monday. This came after Israel struck targets throughout Lebanon and killed dozens of people, and Hezbollah also suffered painful blows to its leadership structure, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The strike hit an apartment in a multi-story building, damaging the building without collapsing, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. Video clips showed ambulances and a crowd of people gathering near the building in a predominantly Sunni area with a busy road lined with shops.

A Palestinian leftist faction in Lebanon said that three of its members were killed in the air strike. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement, early Monday, that its military and security leaders in Lebanon, and a third member, were killed in the attack.

The group did not play a significant role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah group.

A Lebanese Civil Defense official said earlier that a member of the Islamic Group was killed in the raid and that 16 other people were injured, but the armed Sunni group, which is fighting alongside Hezbollah, did not confirm the killing. Any of its members.

Also early Monday, another raid killed a leader in the armed Hamas movement, which has a presence in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Hamas said that Fatah al-Sharif and his family were killed in an air strike on the al-Bass refugee camp in the southern coastal city of Tyre.

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Nasrallah’s killing: The assassination of Hezbollah’s leader is a major blow to the armed group

In the past week, Israel has repeatedly targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence — including a major raid on Friday that killed Nasrallah — but has not hit sites near the city center.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that Nabil Qaouk, deputy head of its Central Council, was killed on Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli raids in just over a week. They include the group’s founding members who have evaded death or arrest for decades.

Hezbollah also confirmed that Ali Karki, another senior commander, was killed in the raid that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 Hezbollah fighters were killed, including a person responsible for guarding Nasrallah.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that at least 105 people were killed across the country in air strikes on Sunday. The ministry said that two raids near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 kilometers south of Beirut, killed at least 32 people. In a separate incident, Israeli raids in the northern Baalbek-Hermel governorate killed 21 people and wounded at least 47.

Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern, and western Bekaa Valley and in the south, in addition to strikes on Beirut. Israel says it is targeting militants, but the strikes hit buildings where civilians live and the death toll is expected to rise.

In a video of an air strike in Sidon, verified by the Associated Press, a building swayed before collapsing as neighbors filmed it. One of the television stations called on viewers to pray for a family trapped under the rubble, and published their photos, after rescuers failed to reach them. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that at least 14 paramedics were killed within two days in the south.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he will speak soon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided. “It has to be that way,” Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as he boarded Air Force One heading to Washington.

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Meanwhile, the wreckage of the Friday strike that killed Nasrallah was still smoldering. Smoke rose above the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to inspect what remained of their homes and others to offer condolences, pray or simply see the devastation.

The Israeli military said that in response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its missile attacks in the past week, from several dozen to several hundred per day. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the missiles and drones were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems or fell in open areas.

The army says its strikes have weakened Hezbollah’s capabilities and the number of launches would have been much higher had Hezbollah not been hit.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said dozens of its aircraft bombed Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack. The army said it targeted power plants and sea port facilities in the city of Hodeidah.

The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday when Netanyahu arrived. The Houthi media office said that the Israeli raids hit the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa, as well as two power plants in the city of Hodeidah, the stronghold of the Iranian-backed rebels. The Houthi-run Ministry of Health said the raids killed four people and injured 40 others.

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The conflict in the Middle East is expanding to a third front with Israel striking the Houthis

The Houthis claimed that they took precautionary measures before the strikes, as they unloaded oil stored in the ports, according to Nasr al-Din Amer, deputy director of the Houthi media office. He said in a post on X that the strikes would not stop rebel attacks on shipping routes and on Israel.

A Pentagon spokesman said Israel gave notice to the United States but did not coordinate its strikes on Sunday in Yemen with the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in English in a three-minute video released by his office in which he said he was addressing the Iranian people, blamed the Iranian government for plunging the Middle East “deeper into war” at the expense of its people.

“There is no place in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach. “There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country,” Netanyahu said.

He said that the Iranian government is bringing Iranians “closer to the abyss.” Iran and Israel will be at peace when Iran is “finally free,” which he said “will come much sooner than people think.”

Referring to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, Netanyahu said that the “puppets” of the Iranian “regime” are being eliminated every day.

The Pentagon announced Monday that the United States will send “several thousand” additional troops to the Middle East to bolster security and prepare to defend Israel if necessary.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that the increased presence will come from several squadrons of combat aircraft.

Additional personnel include squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16, A-10 and F-22 fighter aircraft and personnel needed to support them. The aircraft were supposed to rotate and replace already existing squadrons. Instead, existing and new squadrons will remain in place to maximize available air power.

Singh said the planes are not there to assist in the evacuation, “they are there to protect the American forces.”

2:55
Expert: Hezbollah “weakened” after the assassination of Nasrallah at the hands of Israel

Meanwhile, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s leadership structure, but warned that the group would quickly work to rebuild it.

“I think people would be safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We are watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership void. It will be difficult. … A large part of their leadership structure has now been wiped out.”

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kirby sidestepped questions about whether the Biden administration agrees with how the Israelis are targeting Hezbollah leaders. The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a temporary 21-day ceasefire proposed by the United States, France and other countries during the United Nations General Assembly last week.

A wave of Israeli air strikes in large parts of Lebanon has killed more than 1,030 people – including 156 women and 87 children – in less than two weeks, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Government estimates indicate that about 250,000 people are staying in shelters, and three to four times that number are staying with friends or relatives, or camping in the streets.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party backed by Iran, Israel’s main regional rival, rose to prominence in the region after fighting a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006 that ended in a draw.

Qaouk was a veteran Hezbollah member dating back to the 1980s and served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, shells and drones into northern Israel after an October 7 Hamas attack from Gaza sparked war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies who consider themselves part of the Iranian-backed “axis of resistance” against Israel.

The conflict is steadily escalating to the brink of all-out war, raising fears of a region-wide conflagration.

Israel says it is determined to return about 60,000 of its citizens to population centers in the north that were evacuated nearly a year ago. Hezbollah said it would not stop firing rockets unless there was a ceasefire in Gaza, which has proven elusive despite months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel; Amer Madhani in Washington; And Sami Magdy in Cairo; Jack Jeffrey in Jerusalem and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report