An Israeli airstrike obliterated a building in Beirut in a fiery explosion Friday — as it was revealed that the Jewish state reportedly destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility during last month’s retaliatory strikes on Iran.
The latest strike decimated a high-rise building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions — shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel kept up its heavy bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas across the city.
The attack near Tayouneh, which was one of several Israeli airstrikes carried out Friday morning, immediately turned the building into a cloud of fiery rubble, dramatic photos and video show.
A projectile dropped from an Israeli plane approaches the building on November 15, 2024. WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Smoke and flames erupt from a building hit in an Israeli airstrike. AP
An Israeli strike destroys a building in the Tayouneh neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, on November 15, 2024. REUTERSAhead of the strikes, the Israeli military had issued a warning on social media identifying buildings in the southern suburbs from which residents should evacuate, arguing they were near Hezbollah facilities.
Separately, rescue teams were searching through rubble Friday for missing people near the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east, after an Israeli strike there hit a civil defense center the night before, killing at least 13.
Those killed in the strike were employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency, the Lebanese Civil Defense said.
It comes as Israel continues to step up its strikes inside Lebanon amid its escalating war against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the latest attacks unfolded as it emerged that an active Iranian top secret nuclear weapons research facility was among the targets destroyed during Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iran last month, Axios reported, citing multiple US and Israeli officials.
Onlookers watch as smoke from an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern Ghobeiry neighborhood billows on November 15, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
People inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Tayouneh neighborhood of Dahieh district. WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Rubble is all that remains of the building decimated by Israel. WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockThe attack on the facility in Parchin, which was previously reported to be inactive, obliterated “sophisticated equipment used to design the plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device and are needed to detonate it,” according to the outlet.
Iran has denied pursuing nuclear weapons, but the officials said last month’s strike significantly damaged the country’s year-long effort to resume research.
The Parchin base was one of two secret military bases that Israel targeted in its Oct. 25 strikes.
Aerial images that emerged in the aftermath showed an entire building destroyed at the base.
Israel, at the time, said the bases were targeted because the sites allegedly helped produce the missiles Tehran used in its attacks on the Jewish state earlier this year.
With Post wires
