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Beirut, Lebanon – In a dramatic escalation marking the one-year anniversary of the fragile ceasefire that ended the devastating 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces launched a precision airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, November 23, 2025, claiming to have eliminated Hezbollah's chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai. The attack, the first on Lebanon’s capital since June, killed five people and wounded 25 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Hezbollah condemned the strike as a "red line" violation, warning of potential retaliation just days before Pope Leo XIV’s scheduled visit to the country.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and France on November 27, 2024, was intended to halt over a year of cross-border exchanges that began on October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel the previous day. The conflict, which escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024 with Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon, resulted in over 4,000 deaths in Lebanon and 127 in Israel before the truce took effect. Under the agreement, Hezbollah was required to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, Israeli troops were to pull back from southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese Armed Forces were to deploy in the south to dismantle militant infrastructure. A U.S.-led oversight committee, including France and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was established to monitor compliance.
However, the past year has been marred by mutual accusations of violations. Israel has conducted near-daily airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, claiming they target Hezbollah’s attempts to rebuild rocket launchers, arms depots, and command structures south of the Litani. By October 2025, Lebanese health authorities reported over 270 deaths, including 107 civilians, from these operations. Hezbollah has been accused of moving fighters southward and firing occasional mortars, though it denies large-scale breaches. The group, already decimated by the loss of leader Hassan Nasrallah in a September 2024 Israeli strike, has adopted a more cautious posture but maintains it will respond to provocations.
Sunday’s Beirut strike targeted a nine-story apartment building in the densely populated Haret Hreik neighborhood of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. Eyewitnesses described hearing the roar of warplanes followed by three explosions that left a smoking hole in the third and fourth floors, scattering debris across a residential street. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported significant damage and injuries, with civil defense teams sifting through rubble for hours. The Israeli Defense Forces described the operation as precise, authorized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the recommendation of Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
Tabatabai, a veteran operative since the 1980s, commanded Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and led operations in Syria and Yemen. The IDF stated he was leading the terrorist organization’s buildup and rearmament, violating ceasefire terms by coordinating arms smuggling from Syria and entrenching Hezbollah’s capabilities near the Israeli border. Netanyahu’s office emphasized the strike’s role in preventing Hezbollah from regaining its pre-war strength, when it amassed over 150,000 rockets.
Israeli officials did not issue an evacuation warning prior to the strike, citing the need for operational secrecy in an urban area. Government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian declined to confirm whether the U.S. was notified in advance, stating only that Israel makes decisions independently. U.S. sources indicated Washington was aware of Israel’s intent to intensify operations but not the specifics of this raid. Defense Minister Katz affirmed: “We will continue to act forcefully to prevent any threat to the residents of the north and the state of Israel.” At the IDF’s Tel Aviv command center, Zamir reiterated commitment to the truce while drawing clear red lines against rearmament.
Hezbollah’s response was measured but ominous. Deputy Political Council Chair Mahmoud Qamati told reporters a high-ranking militant may have been killed but withheld details, adding that the group was coordinating with the Lebanese government and army. In a statement, Hezbollah accused Israel of crossing a new red line, threatening escalation and vowing to defend Lebanese sovereignty. Parliamentarian Ali Ammar, speaking near the site, insisted the area was civilian and void of military presence. Israeli intelligence anticipates possible Hezbollah retaliation via attacks on Jewish or Israeli targets abroad.
The timing amplifies concerns, coming amid intensified Israeli operations ahead of the ceasefire’s anniversary and just before Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic visit from November 30 to December 2, 2025—his first abroad since his election in May. The trip, commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, includes Masses in Beirut and visits to shrines like St. Charbel in Annaya, aiming to promote interfaith dialogue in Lebanon’s diverse society. Vatican officials expressed deep concern over the strike, urging restraint to ensure the Pope’s safety and message of peace. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, elected in January 2025 after a years-long vacuum, condemned the attack and called for international intervention to halt Israeli aggression, reiterating Beirut’s commitment to disarming militants nationwide by year’s end.
This Beirut raid follows Tuesday’s deadly strike on the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, which killed 13 people and wounded several others—the deadliest incident since the ceasefire. The IDF claimed it targeted a Hamas training compound used to plan attacks on Israel, releasing footage of the precision hit on a group of militants. Hamas denied any military presence in the overcrowded camp, Lebanon’s largest for Palestinian refugees, calling the claim pure fabrication and asserting the site was a public sports field. Paramedics reported bloodstained walls and burned cars at the scene, with Lebanese authorities blocking access to the camp, a known hub for armed factions where state control is limited.
Ein el-Hilweh, home to over 80,000 in squalid conditions, has long been a flashpoint, with rival Palestinian groups clashing internally amid poverty and political neglect. The strike, using a drone on a mosque parking lot, prompted blood donation appeals from southern hospitals and drew UN condemnation for endangering civilians in protected zones. Israel maintains such sites lose protection when used for illicit activities, vowing to act against Hamas wherever it operates. The incident has fueled fears of broader Palestinian involvement, linking Lebanon’s southern unrest to the ongoing Gaza war.
Lebanon’s government, under President Aoun, has approved a phased disarmament plan starting in the south, but progress stalls amid Israeli strikes and Hezbollah’s reluctance. The Lebanese Armed Forces have exhausted their explosives demolishing Hezbollah caches, racing a year-end deadline, yet Israel occupies five southern posts beyond the February 2025 withdrawal. Analysts warn the truce is in shambles, with direct Israel-Lebanon talks as the only path to stability.
As smoke clears in Dahiyeh and mourners gather in Sidon, the strikes underscore the ceasefire’s fragility. With 60,000 Israelis still displaced from the north and 100,000 Lebanese unable to return home due to destruction, the cycle of retaliation risks unraveling a hard-won pause. International calls for de-escalation grow louder, but Lebanon braces for what may come next in this powder keg of proxies and unresolved grievances.
