Lebanon Tensions hit new high as risk of wider conflict rises

Tel Aviv, Hodeidah, Majdal Shams, Baghdad, Beirut and now Tehran. Though the parties involved are loth to acknowledge that the war in Gaza is turning into a regional conflict, the last two weeks of airstrikes and targeted killings across the Middle East suggest the risk is becoming more acute.

- Bethan McKernan

In southern Beirut yesterday, rubble lay piled up at the foot of the collapsed building that had been struck by three Israeli missiles just hours before. The sounds of heavy machinery filled the air, aiding the civil defence members searching for people trapped under debris as Hezbollah fighters clothed in black watched from impromptu roadblocks.

Among others, rescue workers were looking for Fuad Shukur, the powerful Lebanese group's top military commander and the target of the attack in the Haret Hreik area on Tuesday evening. Hezbollah later confirmed that his body had been found in the rubble.

Seventy-four people were injured in the strike on Beirut, mostly from windows and debris from buildings. Four were killed, including two children, according to the Lebanese ministry of health.

"We are used to martyrs and civilians dying," said Joumana, 40, from Haret Hreik. "We take pride in the martyrs, as if he was a groom we were clapping for. We are not scared of anything, Israel, nothing scares us; not even America."