‘No one in the building survived’ – Technologist

Hassan couldn’t take his eyes off the mound of rubble over which rescue workers, aided by excavators, were cautiously moving scrap metal and concrete blocks in search of bodies. Somewhere beneath the rubble of the eight-story building pulverized by an Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut at dawn on Saturday, November 23, lay her 62-year-old sister May, her octogenarian husband and one of their sons, in his 40s. “I spoke to her again yesterday. We talked every day. It’s horrendous what’s happening,” said the 60-something, whose name has been changed at his request, kneeling for a moment, feverish, to regain his composure and hold back his tears.

A pungent smell of gunpowder permeated the air and mingled with the dust in the working-class Basta neighborhood, home to Shiites and Sunnis, near the Serail, the heart of Lebanese institutions and diplomatic representations. The strike left a deep crater in the place of the targeted building and, all around, piles of stone and scrap metal, gutted buildings and blown-out windows. Lebanon’s national news agency said that the raid was carried out with five missiles, “armor-piercing bombs.” At least 20 people were killed and 66 injured, according to a provisional toll published Saturday evening by the Ministry of Health.

Israeli officials told the media, on condition of anonymity, that the target was Mohammad Haydar, Hezbollah’s head of operations, without confirming his death. At the scene of the strike, watched by unarmed Shiite militants, Hezbollah MP Amin Sherri denied that a leader of his movement had been targeted. In an attempt to kill this senior military officer, the Israeli army bombed the building without prior warning at 4 am, startling the residents in their sleep. The unusually powerful strike was heard more than 10 kilometers away.

‘It’s a massacre’

Around 30 people lived in the bombed-out building. Dozens more lived in the adjoining buildings, some of whose facades were blown off in the explosion. Among them were local residents, as well as families from the southern suburbs, the south and the east of the country, displaced since Israel launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon on September 23, followed by a ground offensive in the border strip, to stop Hezbollah firing on its territory. More than 3,670 Lebanese people have been killed and 1.2 million displaced in this war, according to the Lebanese authorities.

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