On the ground in Beirut – a ‘city under siege’: The sound of the bombings is terrifying and there is no end in sight
Enormous explosions and thundering claps of sound reverberated around the Lebanese capital overnight, in what was probably the most violent night yet. They continued into the early hours.
It’s hard to encapsulate just how loud and frightening the Israeli bombings are in Beirut. The sound causes sheer terror. The shockwaves even some kilometres away can be felt shuddering through the buildings and ground.
People run to windows to check how close they might be. And the sound of the Israeli drones flying low and insistently across the city has become a pre-warning and another terrifying indicator of where the bombs might fall next.
The Lebanese Economy minister has called it “a city under siege”.
The Israeli forces spent the night concentrating on targeting the southern suburbs again. The skies of the capital lit up in certain areas as enormous orange mushroom clouds enveloped buildings and huge sparks flew. It is terrifying. Horrifying. Devastating.
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Pic: AP/Hussein Malla
Beirut has utterly transformed in a matter of days. A bustling city centre is now crowded with people living rough, informal camps set up on pavements everywhere. The roads are gridlocked with extra traffic as families circle with whatever they can pile into their cars, searching for a place to camp or find some sort of shelter.
The official shelters in schools, universities, and designated government buildings are now in their hundreds and full to overflowing. A lot of roundabouts and road junctions are now filled with families camped on patches of grass; some have taken to sleeping on the public beaches.
The city is full up.
Nightclubs have been turned into emergency housing for those who have fled their homes from further south nearer the Israeli border – who now find themselves cowering in terror as Israeli jets make multiple air raids throughout the night.
The Israeli military has been issuing “warnings” on a daily, nightly basis and this causes fear and terror in itself.
Dahieh – the southern suburb area most targeted – still has a Hezbollah presence. It is known as a Hezbollah stronghold, but it is worth repeating that it is also usually home to tens of thousands of others who are not affiliated with the militant group, which is proscribed in the UK and US.
Difficult questions to answer
Pic: AP/Bilal Hussein
It is an area with a usual population of around 600,000 – so big I had to check and double-check the figure after being questioned about the size by colleagues. The figure is actually a bit old so it was probably, pre-war, much larger.
There are still people there, as well as Hezbollah fanatics. The many people we’ve spoken to tell us they are understandably nervous about leaving their homes with nothing to go to and uncertainty about when they’ll be back. So many have said to us: “But where would I go? What would I do? All I own and have is here – why would I leave it all?”
These are very difficult questions to answer.
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The Israeli forces insist they are targeting Hezbollah military structures and weapons stores, as well as the militant group’s political and leadership structure.
There seems increasing likelihood that the man most touted to replace the recently assassinated leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is now also dead.
Several media outlets have quoted Lebanese security sources saying the group had lost contact with Hasham Safieddine – who hadn’t even yet been officially named as Nasrallah’s successor.
But with the pounding of airstrikes now on a nightly basis and often stretching into the day, the Lebanese feel they are being targeted as a population.
“It feels like collective punishment,” is very often the refrain. Time and again, ordinary people ask us: “Why are WE being hit? Why have we lost our family home?”
Pic: AP/Hussein Malla
The Lebanese government appears to be a bystander in all this, unable to exert diplomatic or political muscle while the Lebanese army is dwarfed in size and power by Hezbollah fighters and weaponry, and the United Nations – which has “peacekeepers” along the Blue Line demarking the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon – is confined to its bases and unable to patrol.
With the death toll already surpassing that of 34 days of war in 2006, it looks most definitely like this is going to be a lot worse in terms of casualties, never mind the level of utter destruction being wrought throughout the country. Yet Hezbollah continues to fire rockets, volleys of them sometimes, into northern Israel, and fight Israeli troops on the ground.
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Lebanese analyst and Hezbollah expert Amal Saad has said for some time, along with many others, that there is unlikely a scenario in which Hezbollah can be beaten militarily. And now Iran is very much involved too.
Michel Helou, secretary general of the National Bloc, a secular political party, said this morning on X: “Beirut just lived one of its worst nights. More than thirty strikes. Total silence in the international community.”
The UN has said Lebanon’s health system is “on the brink of collapsing”. Doctors and emergency workers are telling us in their droves how scared and terrorised they are and how they believe they are being specifically targeted.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has expressed alarm at the increasing reports of health facilities and emergency workers being attacked.
And still, there is no end in sight.
World
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high
At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.
The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.
Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.
Ten children were reportedly killed when Israel attacked near a clinic on Thursday. Pic: AP
The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.
Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.
“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.
The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.
It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.
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It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.
The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.
A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.
The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.
The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.
Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.
The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.
“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”
Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.
Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.
Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.
“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.
The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.
It said three children and their mother were among the dead.
Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.
On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.
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Do Trump and Netanyahu really get along?
Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.
A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.
People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.
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IDF chief says conditions ‘created’ for Gaza ceasefire
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal ?
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Lack of food and water ‘lethal’ for Gaza children
Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.
A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.
However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.
Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.
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