Israel strikes Beirut suburb in 10-minute Lebanon barrage
On 8 April, Israel hit about 100 targets across Lebanon in 10 minutes, starting at 14.15 local time, and one of the worst-hit places was beirut's southern suburb of Hay el Sellom. Lebanese authorities said 361 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured that day.
Residents in Hay el Sellom said the area had stayed calm until the afternoon. Weeks later, Mohammed stood in the ruins of his apartment and described the strike that killed his son Abbas: “The three floors above mine all fell into one room.”
Hay el Sellom after the strikes
Hay el Sellom was described as barely recognisable after the attacks. Homes were reduced to rubble, staircases led nowhere and exposed wires hung in the wreckage. At least five strikes hit the area in quick succession, according to analysis of verified footage, social media posts, satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts.
The Israeli targets included Hezbollah command centres and military sites, and Beirut's southern suburbs were hit as part of a broader wave across Lebanon. Those suburbs are an area where Hezbollah holds sway, and residents said few people left Hay el Sellom because they had nowhere to go.
Mohammed in the ruins
Mohammed said his son Abbas was asleep at home when the building was hit by an Israeli air strike. “This is the second home I've lost,” he said, adding, “In the last war [in 2024] I lost a home. And in this war I lost another.”
He said he stayed because he did not believe Hezbollah members were in the building. “If I thought there was even a 1% chance that someone from Hezbollah lived here, I wouldn't have stayed,” he said. “I would never risk my son's life.” He added: “Maybe, since I'm 45 years old, I wouldn't worry about the risk to myself but a young man with his whole life ahead of him - I would not put him in a building if anyone was there.”
Mohammed also said: “I wish it was just my home that I lost, and that my son survived. This brick can be rebuilt. But nothing will bring back my son.”
Israel, Hezbollah and the ceasefire
Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on 2 March in response to US and Israeli attacks on Iran, and a wider Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon followed. Earlier on 8 April, a temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran was announced, and Israel said Lebanon would not be included in that temporary ceasefire.
That leaves the strikes in Hay el Sellom as part of a larger chain of events, but the immediate picture for residents is simpler: a neighbourhood that once had homes and stairwells now has ruins, and a family that had already lost one house in 2024 lost another in this war.
