BEIRUT ATTACK
In Israel, people were preparing for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar which begins on Friday, though troops will continue operations against Hezbollah and Hamas.
From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets will close, flights will stop and public transport will halt as most Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.
On Thursday, Israel appeared to target Hezbollah’s security chief in air strikes on Beirut that killed 22 people, the deadliest on the centre of the capital since the conflict erupted.
In central Beirut, residents, some weeping, were checking their homes and asking for news of neighbours, after a strike on Thursday that appeared to target Hezbollah’s security chief killed 22 people.
“The head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus, Wafiq Safa, was targeted,” a source close to Hezbollah told AFP Friday, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.
Safa was close to Hezbollah’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
But people in the neighbourhood were stunned by the ferocity of the strike.
“There are a lot of families living here,” many displaced from south Lebanon and who have relatives in the neighbourhood, said Bilal Othman.
“Do they (Israel) want to tell us there is no safe place left in this country?”
