Deadliest Israeli strike yet on central Beirut leaves gruesome scenes | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
July 12, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2025
Deadliest Israeli strike yet on central Beirut leaves gruesome scenes

Middle East

Reuters
25 November, 2024, 10:20 pm
Last modified: 25 November, 2024, 10:20 pm

Related News

  • Israel will strike Iran again if threatened, defence minister says
  • Transport workers withdraw strike in Sylhet following govt assurances
  • Netanyahu says any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel
  • Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
  • Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza talks despite 'unacceptable' Hamas demands

Deadliest Israeli strike yet on central Beirut leaves gruesome scenes

The massive Israeli strike hit the densely populated Basta Fawqa neighbourhood in the Lebanese capital just before dawn on Saturday, killing at least 29 people including children, making it the deadliest bombardment of the city in the last year

Reuters
25 November, 2024, 10:20 pm
Last modified: 25 November, 2024, 10:20 pm
A Lebanese army soldier and people stand on rubble at a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, Lebanon November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Emilie Madi
A Lebanese army soldier and people stand on rubble at a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, Lebanon November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Emilie Madi

Stepping through the charred ruins of her neighbourhood in central Beirut, Lebanese seamstress Laila Amayrad watched bulldozers pick through a building flattened by an Israeli strike days ago, hoping her friends' bodies would be found.

The massive Israeli strike hit the densely populated Basta Fawqa neighbourhood in the Lebanese capital just before dawn on Saturday, killing at least 29 people including children, making it the deadliest bombardment of the city in the last year.

On Monday afternoon, more than 48 hours later, civil defence workers were still digging through the remains of the eight-storey building, now reduced to a vast crater.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Amayrad, a freckled woman in a red headscarf, had lived in the neighbourhood nearly her whole life. With tears in her eyes, she counted nine of the dead as friends, neighbours or clients, some of whom had been hosting relatives displaced by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon.

"They came here to be safe, because this neighbourhood is safe. I would walk around alone at midnight because there are no weapons, no fighters, nothing here," Amayrad told Reuters.

"And they were killed just sleeping at home, with no warning. It's the innocents who are losing their lives in this."

Israeli authorities have not commented on the strike. Israel says it is targeting Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and that it issues evacuation warnings to civilians to minimise risks to them ahead of bombardment. It did not issue an evacuation warning ahead of the Basta Fawqa strike.

Amayrad joked that it would be safer to live in Beirut's southern suburbs - once a densely populated neighbourhood and stronghold of Hezbollah - than in Basta.

"At least Israel issues warnings there," she said.

A Lebanese security source said preliminary assessments showed the Nov. 23 strike on Basta Fawqa used a bunker-busting bomb. Amayrad and another resident, Sherif Itani, who knew the building since their childhoods, said it contained no bunker.

Another multi-storey home two buildings over had been hit on Oct. 10, also without warning. Two separate strikes that evening on central Beirut killed at least 22 people, making it the deadliest strike before Basta was hit again.

On Monday afternoon, a rescue worker caked in dust made his way from the bulldozers down a mountain of rubble and plopped down on a plastic chair to light a cigarette, saying he doubted anyone else would be found alive.

Rescuers said the strike was the most gruesome in more than a year of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, which escalated sharply since September. Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,750 people over the last year, Lebanon's health ministry said.

The head of the rescue unit at the scene, Hassan Yassin, told Reuters a head with no body was found on Saturday.

"We picked up a leg here, a hand here. We took out the bodies of three children yesterday. We found a dead older couple, both of them in wheelchairs," said Jaafar, an 18-year-old rescuer. "It was the worst scene yet."

 

Israel / Lebanon / Beirut / strike

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Representational image
    In addition to 35% tariff, US demands 40% local value addition for 'Made in Bangladesh' goods
  • Kunming rising: China's emerging healthcare hub draws Bangladeshi patients
    Kunming rising: China's emerging healthcare hub draws Bangladeshi patients
  • Photo: Courtesy
    4 arrested, 2 remanded over brutal killing of trader near Mitford Hospital

MOST VIEWED

  • In terms of stream of education, girls maintained their excellence as well. Photo: TBS
    SSC 2025: Girls dominate boys by over 5%
  • Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin/TBS
    SSC, equivalent results: Pass rate drops to 68.45%, GPA-5 also declines
  • The overall pass rate across all boards this year, 68.45%, is significantly lower than last year's. Photo: Focus Bangla
    SSC 2025: Rajshahi board records highest pass rate, Barishal lowest
  • How S Alam’s Global Islami Bank cooked Tk2,259cr loss into Tk128cr profit
    How S Alam’s Global Islami Bank cooked Tk2,259cr loss into Tk128cr profit
  • Representational image. Photo: TBS
    SSC 2025: 73.63% pass rate among technical students, 68.09% at Madrasahs
  • Economist Abul Barkat; Photo: Courtesy
    Economist Abul Barkat arrested in graft case

Related News

  • Israel will strike Iran again if threatened, defence minister says
  • Transport workers withdraw strike in Sylhet following govt assurances
  • Netanyahu says any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel
  • Israel to issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students
  • Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza talks despite 'unacceptable' Hamas demands

Features

Kunming rising: China's emerging healthcare hub draws Bangladeshi patients

Kunming rising: China's emerging healthcare hub draws Bangladeshi patients

10h | Panorama
Photo: Collected/BBC

What Hitler’s tariff policy misfire can teach the modern world

1d | The Big Picture
Illustration: TBS

Behind closed doors: Why women in Bangladesh stay in abusive marriages

1d | Panorama
Purbachl’s 144-acre Sal forest is an essential part of the area’s biodiversity. Within it, 128 species of plants and 74 species of animals — many of them endangered — have been identified. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS

A forest saved: Inside the restoration of Purbachal's last Sal grove

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Renowned economist Abul Barkat imprisoned

Renowned economist Abul Barkat imprisoned

8h | TBS Today
All of Iran's uranium still intact, Israel claims

All of Iran's uranium still intact, Israel claims

8h | TBS World
Trump-Netanyahu in new strategy on Gaza issue

Trump-Netanyahu in new strategy on Gaza issue

10h | TBS World
Shocking science: why birds stay safe on electricity lines

Shocking science: why birds stay safe on electricity lines

10h | TBS Stories
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net