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Middle East updates: Israel strikes central Beirut
Published 7 hours agoPublished 7 hours agolast updated 56 minutes agolast updated 56 minutes ago
Israel has continued to hit dozens of targets inside Lebanon, with reports an apartment building has been struck in central Beirut. Lebanese authorities say more than 100 have been killed in a 24-hour period. Follow DW.

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Damaged cars in front of an apartment building in Beirut that was hit by an Israeli strike
A multistory apartment building has been hit in central Beirut, according to news agencies and witnessesImage: Hussein Malla/AP/dpa/picture alliance
Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
Hamas says its leader in Lebanon has been killed in a strike on the country’s south
Israel has reportedly struck an apartment building in central Beirut
Lebanese health officials say over 100 people have been killed and hundreds injured over 24-hour period
These are the main headlines from the Israel-Lebanon escalation, Gaza, Yemen and other parts of the Middle East on Monday, September 30.

Skip next section Hamas says its leader in Lebanon killed in Israeli strike
56 minutes ago56 minutes ago
Hamas says its leader in Lebanon killed in Israeli strike
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has said its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed along with some of his family members in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon.

“Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas … in Lebanon and member of the movement’s leadership abroad,” was killed in a strike on his “home in the Al-Buss camp in south Lebanon,” a Hamas statement said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported an airstrike on the Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Tyre in the early hours of Monday.

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist group based in the Gaza Strip. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by the German government, the EU, the US and some Arab states.

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Skip next section Palestinian leftist group says 3 members killed in Beirut strike
5 hours ago5 hours ago
Palestinian leftist group says 3 members killed in Beirut strike
Palestinian militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said on Monday that three of its members were killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s Kola district.

The attack, which has yet to be confirmed by Israel, would be the first attack within Beirut’s city limits since October 7.

Reuters news agency cited witnesses as saying that the strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building.

The PLFP said in a statement that its military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh, and a third member, Abdelrahman Abdel-Aal were killed in the strike.

The PFLP is a secular left-wing group, aligned with Hezbollah in its support of the Palestinian group Hamas against Israel. The groups are all designated as terrorist organizations by various governments.

Over the past few days, Israel has been targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs in strikes it says are aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

Earlier strikes have focused largely on the Shiite majority areas where Hezbollah are dominant. The Kola district is traditionally more Sunni.

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Skip next section Hezbollah ‘much less efficient’ than Israel realized, Middle East expert tells DW
7 hours ago7 hours ago
Hezbollah ‘much less efficient’ than Israel realized, Middle East expert tells DW
Hanin Ghaddar, author and Senior Fellow from the Washington Institute’s Arab Politics Program, told DW that two factors had influenced Israel’s decision to escalate the conflict now in Lebanon.

“First is that the Israeli army is no longer needed in big numbers in Gaza. The military operation in Gaza is almost over and the rest that is needed doesn’t require the majority of the Israeli army,” Ghaddar explained.

Secondly, Ghaddar said that Israel realizes that “it’s very easy to infiltrate Hezbollah with their intelligence, that Hezbollah is much more deterred than they thought and much less efficient.”

She said that the lack of efficiency means that Iran also does not want Hezbollah to respond.

On the question of how badly Hezbollah has been impacted by the attacks on its leadership, Ghaddar said that what had happened was essentially “an assassination of Hezbollah.”

“What we see is not just an assassination of the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, it’s an actual assassination of Hezbollah itself by eliminating its founders,” Ghaddar said.

What next in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah?
05:19
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Skip next section Lebanon’s Health Ministry says over 100 killed in Israeli strikes
7 hours ago7 hours ago
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says over 100 killed in Israeli strikes
Lebanon’s Health Ministry on Sunday said that 105 people had been killed in Israeli strikes over a 24-hour period.

The ministry said that 359 people had also been injured as Israel struck parts of southern Lebanon, including suburbs in Beirut.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier said that it had conducted strikes on around 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The IDF said that it was continuing attacks in Lebanon to “damage and degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and infrastructure.”

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Skip next section Apartment building struck in central Beirut — reports
7 hours ago7 hours ago
Apartment building struck in central Beirut — reports
News agencies cited witnesses in reports that an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in central Beirut.

If confirmed this would be the first Israeli strike within the city limits of Beirut in almost a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and comes amid continued attacks throughout Lebanon.

The Reuters news agency reported that an upper floor of an apartment building in the Kola district of Beirut was hit and cited witnesses as having heard a bang and seeing smoke rising from the upper floor of the building.

French news agency AFP cited a security source saying that an Israeli drone hit an apartment belonging to Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya and that four people were killed. This could not be independently verified.

There have been other strikes on Beirut, including the one that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, but this would be the first within the city limits and not in a suburb.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah killed in Israeli airstrike
04:51
kb/ab (Reuters, AFRP, AP, dpa)