BEIRUT (Reuters) -The Israeli army said on Sunday it struck a southern Beirut building being used to store precision missiles belonging to Hezbollah.
The attack was a further test of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group.
A huge plume of smoke billowed from the building, Reuters live footage showed, almost an hour after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order to residents of the Hadath neighbourhood.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Hezbollah’s precision missiles “posed a significant threat to the State of Israel”. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
The latest strike adds to strains on the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Today’s strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut generated panic and fear of renewed violence among those desperate for a return to normalcy,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, said on X.
“We urge all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the cessation of hostilities understanding and the implementation of SCR 1701,” she added, referring to the United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the United States and France, as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement struck in November, to compel Israel to stop its attacks.
“Israel’s continued actions in undermining stability will exacerbate tensions and place the region at real risk, threatening its security and stability,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this month an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including a Hezbollah official, in Beirut’s southern suburbs -the second Israeli strike on a Hezbollah-controlled area of the Lebanese capital in five days.
The attacks on southern Beirut have resumed at a time of broader escalation in hostilities in the region, with Israel having restarted Gaza strikes after a two-month truce and the United States hitting the Iranian-backed Houthis of Yemen in a bid to get them to stop attacking Red Sea shipping.
Israel has dealt severe blows to Hezbollah in the war, killing thousands of its fighters, destroying much of its arsenal and eliminating its top leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has denied any role in recent rocket attacks from Lebanon towards Israel.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Muhammad Al Gebaly, Laila Bassam and Maayan Lubell; Editing by David Evans, David Holmes and Giles Elgood)
