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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

'Collateral Damage': Israel Bombs Lebanon Again Ahead of New Talks

2026-05-09

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Anhar Kochneva

[REGNUM] Three loud explosions rocked the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya.

Dahiya is where Hamas lives.

The attack was allegedly carried out by an Israeli ship.

A similar attack—from the sea—was carried out in Beirut during the assassination attempt on high-ranking members of Hezbollah's military wing on April 1. That time, the targets were several vehicles being transported away from a secret meeting.

The target of the latest strike, carried out at 8:00 PM on May 6, was a multi-story residential building. According to the Israeli side, it housed a military operations headquarters. Three rockets fired at the building destroyed apartments on the six upper floors. The target was Malek Ballut, the head of Hezbollah's special forces, the so-called "Radwan Forces. "

The Israelis have already reported his elimination. According to them, the shelling of the residential area was carried out with the logistical assistance of the United States. His deputy was killed along with Ballut.

Some Shiite sources claimed that the immediate target of the assassination attempt had survived, but party officials soon confirmed the deaths of their comrades. According to Lebanese media, the attack killed two people and wounded seven. Most of them were complete strangers, what the US cynically refers to as "collateral damage."

The Haret Hreik neighborhood in Dahiya is particularly favored by Israeli air forces and is the most frequently bombed neighborhood. This is because various offices of the "Party of God" (as Hezbollah translates) were officially located in the neighborhood, and many influential members bought or rented homes near their workplaces.

The area also housed the infamous bunker where Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was located at the time of the assassination attempt, which the Israelis used around 80 tons of explosives to kill him on September 27, 2024.

He’s really, most sincerely dead…

Hezbollah is an official political party, but it has a military wing. The party is predominantly Shiite, although its ranks also include representatives of other religious denominations. It is the largest Shiite party in Lebanon, surpassing its direct competitor, the Amal Movement, in membership and support.

Immediately after the bombing, gigantic traffic jams formed at the exits from Haret Hreik and the surrounding areas: residents who had returned to their apartments after the agreement on a temporary ceasefire were once again forced to become refugees.

For about three weeks, the situation in Beirut's southern suburbs was generally relatively calm. People had a chance to recover. Since April 8, when the city was literally drenched in blood by Israeli airstrikes, there had been no further strikes until recently. Therefore, many, despite the ongoing risks, returned to their apartments.

People who had been forced to live in open-air tents for long periods of time were especially eager to travel to neighborhoods previously subjected to massive bombing. Warm weather has been elusive in Lebanon, and heavy rainfall makes living in unsuitable conditions a torment.

Meanwhile, the Israeli "halt" turned into more than 220 strikes by the IDF on Hezbollah infrastructure over the 20 days of the ostensible ceasefire. Most of these strikes occurred in southern Lebanon.

Villages in the Tyre and Nabatieh provinces were bombed particularly intensively. In most cases, civilian objects, primarily residential buildings, were targeted.

In addition to continuing bombing, Israel continues to bulldoze and mine entire villages. Lebanese media and blogs report that a number of settlements have simply ceased to exist.

WHAT ARE THE "RADWAN FORCES"?
The Radwan Forces, whose leaders were killed on Wednesday, were created in 2008. Their full official name is Fawj Haj Radwan, or the al-Haj Radwan Regiment. Al-Haj Radwan is the pseudonym of Imad Mughniyeh, a prominent figure in the Lebanese resistance to the Israeli occupation who was killed in an assassination attempt in Damascus on February 12, 2008.

Syria subsequently became the unit's training ground. Among the towns liberated from anti-Assad forces with its help was the city of Al-Qusayr in Homs province, through which, according to the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, "the road to Jerusalem lies." Some analysts believe this statement has some basis in fact: it was in Syria—and in Al-Qusayr in particular—that the skills needed by Shiite special forces for the anticipated battles in northern Palestine were honed and reinforced.

The unit's key missions include: infiltrating Israel (especially the north of the country, including the Galilee); conducting reconnaissance operations using unmanned aerial vehicles; organizing ambushes and raids; conducting precision strikes and sabotage; and providing Hezbollah with the capacity for large-scale offensive operations.

Although it's virtually impossible to find official information about which units of Hezbollah's paramilitary wing are currently inflicting significant damage on the IDF in southern Lebanon, the pattern of their operations is quite recognizable. At least a number of them are being carried out by the "Radwan Forces."

Therefore, Israeli intelligence is paying particular attention to eliminating the leaders of this unit. However, as the Lebanese themselves insist, these assassination attempts are unlikely to yield any significant benefits due to the specific structure of the armed resistance forces.

The units operating on the ground in border areas are not linked to a unified command and are not coordinated from above. All possible courses of action and tactics are studied and honed by the fighters long before the fighting begins. The units fight autonomously, receive no orders from the center, and are unfamiliar with their colleagues in other units. Therefore, the risk of harm to all units at once is minimal.

However, all these features, as well as “collateral damage,” do not stop Israel from continuing to bomb residential areas of Lebanon during preparations for a new round of negotiations.

Posted by:badanov

#1 comments); ?>werwer

Posted by: Mercutio 2026-05-09 11:07

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