’Bombed To Dust’: A Look At Beirut’s Night Of Hell

Lebanon and the whole Arab world is in shock after Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the death of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. 

But common Lebanese civilians are reeling after mass destruction was unleashed by Israeli warplanes overnight. The attacks continued on Beirut’s southern suburbs, leaving entire buildings turned to dust.

This comes at the end of a week which already witnessed at least 700 killed, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It is unclear how many casualties are militants vs. civilians – but very clearly the civilian casualty toll has been high.

Israel’s military is vowing to continue its military operation in the skies over Lebanon, and has frequently asserted that Hezbollah hides missiles, drones, and UAVs within and underneath residences.

There were some sporadic missile waves fired from south Lebanon into Israel overnight, but with Nasrallah and the top leadership now confirmed dead, it is unclear what Hezbollah’s organizational capabilities will be at this point.

Israel is still taking no chances, having canceled schools across the north, and banned large public gatherings.

„Israel’s military updated guidelines for residents on Saturday that prohibit large gatherings, demonstrations, and sports events in central Israel due to concerns of a counterattack after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah,” AP reports.

For eight hours straight and counting, Israel has been carpet-bombing densely populated neighbourhoods of Beirut and greater Lebanon. A new bomb dropped, a new tragedy—every 5 minutes. Videos out of Tel Aviv show Israelis dancing at celebration parties.

Do you understand? pic.twitter.com/GAGOWVrj7M

— Afif Aqrabawi (@AjAqrabawi) September 28, 2024

Joseph Bahout, the Beirut-based director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, has described to Al Jazeera the situation on the ground in Lebanon as of Saturday morning…

„I’m talking to you and there’s a drone flying over the southern suburb where I live some 500-600metres from. Bombings have not stopped all night long – you can see pictures of people on the streets, on the roads, sleeping in open-air spaces, really left alone without any care and sometimes without any food to eat.”

My god. Martyr’s square. Hamra. Raouche. All of Dahieh has fled into the rest of Beirut. https://t.co/zpXYrrjgA8 pic.twitter.com/3hwEzFUHpT

— Nada Homsi (@NadaOHomsi) September 27, 2024

He continued, “So Lebanon today is a complete mess, it’s a country in chaos and I think that the worst is to come regardless of the political and military results of the strike on Hassan Nasrallah or not.”

Overnight airstrike on Choueifat:

⚡️Video of the airstrike moments ago on Choueifat pic.twitter.com/Lck5hmpRcz

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 28, 2024

Below are some further images and video of Beirut’s night of hell…

⚡️Video of the strikes on Beirut moments ago pic.twitter.com/7H4S3CCDOO

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 28, 2024

⚡️New scenes of the occupation aircraft targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut. pic.twitter.com/eYqDAUFkHH

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 28, 2024

Hezbollah is meanwhile vowing to continue fighting Israel, and Israel is in turn warning that its bombing campaign will not end until the Iran-backed group’s military capabilities are fully degraded. More airstrikes on Beirut have been observed on Dahiyeh neighborhood later in the day Saturday.