While Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on Lebanese territory since the “ceasefire” went into effect in November, they had so far only done flights over the capital city of Beirut. Today, however, they started attacking the capital again.
Moments before the attacks started, IDF spokesman Avichat Adraee issued a statement in Arabic on Twitter informing the area of imminent attack and ordering civilians to withdraw from at least 300 meters around the target, which was displayed in a satellite image along with its name.
The area is smack dab in a residential neighborhood in the suburbs south of Beirut, and the target is actually a private school, kindergarten through 12th grade, called the Lycée Des Arts, and neighboring buildings.
The website for the lycée (French for school) is in English and shows what looks like a very ordinary, very nice school with students participating in activities that would be very normal for such a place. Kindergartens are shown finger painting and the high school seniors had a bake sale in October to raise money for breast cancer.
Lebanon’s Education Ministry responded by closing all public and private schools in the district for the day in recognition of the threat. They told teachers, staff and students to stay away. So why is this school suddenly and specifically in Israel’s cross-hairs?
As usual, Israel is using Hezbollah as an excuse. A subsequent Tweet from Adraee declared the target, which had explicitly been identified as Lycée Des Arts in the first Tweet, as “Hezbollah infrastructure” used for storing drones.
Israel offered no evidence that this literal school was full of attack drones, or indeed had anything to do with Hezbollah. The school’s website, perhaps needless to say, doesn’t show any drone either, just finger painting and such.
French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the first to denounce the attacks, both as a violation of the ceasefire and “unacceptable.” Macron indicated he intended to take the issue up with US President Trump, as the US and France were meant to be the guarantors of the ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated this wasn’t just a one-off incident, vowing to continue strikes “everywhere in Lebanon” after today’s attacks on the school. He too presented this as about Hezbollah, and tied it to rocket fire from a week ago along the southern border.
Israel’s narrative presents this rocket fire as a Hezbollah attack, though Hezbollah has denied involvement. Six rockets were fired, of which three crossed the border, all intercepted, so no damage was actually caused. Lebanon’s Army found the “primitive rocket launchers” used in the attack and destroyed them a few hours later. This is unlikely to be Hezbollah as well, given that they have more advanced launch systems that they would commonly use. No group has claimed credit.
The amount of damage in the attack on the Lycée Des Artes is unclear at this time, though images of black smoke rising in the neighborhood suggest it may be substantial. Casualty numbers are also not available, and given the order to evacuate was just a few minutes before the attack, many people may not have seen it or had time to leave.
Israel has also carried out multiple strikes in southern Lebanon on Friday, with an attack on Kfar Tebnit, in Nabatieh Governorate, killing one civilian and wounding eight others. Three children were reported to have been wounded in this strike, and it’s totally unclear what the intended target even was.
