Israeli missile strikes hit two multi-story buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. Footage captured the moment one of the was buildings leveled.
BEIRUT — Israel said Tuesday one of its airstrikes outside Beirut this month killed a Hezbollah official widely expected to replace the longtime leader of the militant group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month.
There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah about the fate of Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric who was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group's founders.
Safieddine was killed in early October in a strike that also killed 25 other Hezbollah leaders, according to Israel, whose airstrikes in southern Lebanon in recent months killed many of Hezbollah's top leaders.
Last week, Israel killed the top leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, during a battle in Gaza.
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a series of fresh airstrikes on Tuesday, including one that leveled a building it claimed housed Hezbollah facilities.
The collapse sent smoke and debris flying into the air a few hundred yards from where a spokesperson for Hezbollah just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli prime minister's house.
The strike came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah press conference nearby was cut short, and an Associated Press photographer captured an image of a missile heading towards the building moments before it was destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Hezbollah's chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, said the group was behind the Saturday drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the coastal town of Caesarea. Israel has said neither the prime minister nor his wife were home at the time of the attack.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders Tuesday as part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Blinken is trying to revive efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.
Blinken stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and said Israel should "capitalize" on last week's killing of Sinwar as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages there.
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Netanyahu's office called his meeting with Blinken, which lasted more than two hours, "friendly and productive."
Blinken landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas and at its international airport, but causing no apparent damage or injuries.
An Israeli airstrike late Monday in Beirut night destroyed several buildings across the street from the country's largest public hospital, killing 18 people and wounding at least 60. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and claimed it didn't target the hospital itself.
Associated Press reporters visited the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Tuesday. They saw broken windows in the hospital's pharmacy and dialysis center, which was full of patients.
Staff at another Beirut hospital feared it would be targeted after Israel alleged that Hezbollah stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in its basement, without providing evidence.
The director of the Sahel General Hospital denied the allegations and invited journalists to visit the hospital and its two underground floors on Tuesday. AP reporters saw no sign of militants or anything out of the ordinary.
The few remaining patients were evacuated after the Israeli military's announcement the night before.
"We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours," hospital director Mazen Alame said. "There is nothing under the hospital."
Many in Lebanon fear Israel could target its hospitals in the same way it has raided medical facilities across Gaza. The Israeli military has accused Hamas and other militants of using hospitals for military purposes, allegations denied by medical staff.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Tuesday that 63 people were killed over the prior 24 hours, raising the death toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,546. Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday, one in Gaza, one in Lebanon, and one in a rocket attack in northern Israel, according to the military.
The war in Gaza began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The fighting killed about 1,200 people and militants took about 250 hostages. More than 100 of them were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded tens of thousands, according to local health authorities, who don't say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children. It has also caused major devastation across the territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million.
A man waves from his shattered house Tuesday at the site of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings facing the city's main government hospital in a densely-populated neighborhood in southern Beirut, Lebanon.