Local reactions after the Israeli attack on Haret Hreik were numerous on Wednesday. The targeting resulted in the death of four and the wounding of around 79, according to the Health Ministry, with many still trapped under the rubble.
A Hezbollah parliamentary delegation, headed by MP Ali Ammar, visited the scene of the attack in Haret Hreik. Ammar emphasized that “the Israeli enemy targeted a residential area, causing enormous harm, including material damage.”
He also denounced the attack, stating that “this shows Israel’s intransigence and contempt for international resolutions,” and assured that Hezbollah “will do everything in its power to respond.'”
Official condemnations
On the other hand, Caretaker Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi, “strongly” condemned “the criminal aggression carried out by the Israeli enemy in this dear region of Lebanon, near a hospital and a civilian residential building, in which martyrs and wounded were killed and injured.”
“Lebanon, which does not want war, is a victim of Israeli criminality through this aggression,” Halabi added.
Additionally, Caretaker Minister of Youth and Sports, George Kallas, emphasized that “the Israeli attack on the southern suburb is an attack on all of Lebanon and its people,” calling for “considering what happened as a criminal act in the eyes of the international community.”
“Lebanon is strong with the solidarity of its people and the solidarity of the political forces that strive to preserve the entity of the homeland and strengthen the pillars of the state,” he added.
Caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makari, strongly condemned the attack on the southern suburb of Beirut, expecting “Hezbollah to respond to the attack.”
Caretaker Minister of Labour, Moustapha Bayram, acknowledged that ‘Lebanon is suffering but it will not fall because it is strong’. In his view, ‘the fact that the Israelis targeted a public figure does not justify a blatant attack of such magnitude against civilians’, considering that the Hebrew State ‘broke all the rules of engagement’.
The Secretary General of the Higher Relief Commission, Major General Mohammed Khair, also inspected the damages in Haret Hreik after the Israeli targeting. He declared that “he was assigned by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to inspect the damage and check on the conditions of the wounded.”
Khair wished a speedy recovery for the wounded, stressing that the commission “will be by the side of all citizens and will not allow anyone affected by the Israeli aggression to be without a home.”
An additional stream of reactions
The Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian, and the Muftis of the Lebanese regions, on a visit to Mecca, issued a statement condemning ‘the barbaric and terrorist Zionist aggression against the southern suburbs’, considering it to be an aggression against all Lebanese regions. They called for ‘unity of ranks to spare Lebanon’.
Dar al Fatwa also urged ‘the Arab League, the international community and all free peoples to dissuade the Zionist enemy, which is practising terrorism against our people in South Lebanon, Gaza and Palestine (…) without any moral or humanitarian distinction, and in defiance of all international resolutions.
Strongly condemning the strike on the southern suburbs, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called on the international community to ‘put an end to Israel’s persistent criminality and violation of international law so that peace and stability can return to South Lebanon’. He also deplored the deaths and injuries among the citizens of the Haret Hreik region.
For his part, MP Ghassan Atallah, a member of the ‘Strong Lebanon’ parliamentary bloc, said in an interview with local channel Al-Jadeed that ‘the situation is very dangerous’ and that ‘we need to think in a balanced way about how to rebuild power in Lebanon’. We will all stand together in the face of any Israeli aggression, and today’s position is to defend Lebanon, and there is no time for political quarrels.
On his X account, the leader of the ‘Koullouna Li Beirut’ political grouping and former Minister of Telecoms, Mohamed Choucair, called on ‘the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Security Council, countries friendly to Lebanon and reasonable people around the world to intervene to convince Israel to put an end to its malicious actions in Lebanon, Gaza and the entire region’. He also accused Israel of wanting ‘to drag the whole region into an open and destructive war’, calling on Lebanese leaders to reject ‘division and hatred during this fateful period’.
Amal: a crime against humanity
‘The crime committed by the Israeli entity targeting Beirut and its southern suburbs is a cowardly aggression, a crime against humanity that requires not verbal, local, Arab and international condemnations but urgent global action by the parties mentioned and by the UN to stop the Israeli killing machine and its aggression’, declared the presidency of the Amal movement in a statement.
For the latter, Israel has ‘not only crossed geographical borders, but also laws and moral rules’.
For the Amal movement, ‘with this perfidious raid, which targeted people in the safety of their homes and shops, the Zionist entity wants to bring the southern suburbs of Beirut back to the war of July 2006’.
Diplomats calling for a calming of the situation
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, considered that “there is no military solution to the current situation.”She expressed her “deep concern at the Israeli bombardments against the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.”
Plasschaert urged “Israel and Lebanon to use all diplomatic channels to obtain a return to a cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701.”
The French Ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, sounded the alarm, warning that “the situation is delicate and dangerous.” He also announced that he had “worked a lot to avoid escalation and called on relevant parties to do so.”
Responding to a question, he said, “We are unfortunately in a situation that we have always warned about, and we have constantly called on the concerned parties not to escalate.”
Magro added, “We were aware that anything could happen if there was tension, and unfortunately we are now in the situation that we expected,” pointing out that “this is why we have made a lot of effort in recent months to try to avoid escalation.” “We will continue our efforts, and we have no reason not to do so, to calm down the situation,” he noted.
The US ambassador, Lisa Johnson, left the Serail without making any statement.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, said that “all political developments, including the aggression in Dahyeh (Haret Hreik), are being followed up with close attention.”
