IDF hits Hezbollah precision missile store in rare strike on Lebanese capital Beirut

Israel Defense Forces struck a Hezbollah warehouse containing precision missiles in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Sunday afternoon, the military stated.

The rare strike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district was the first seen in the capital since March 28, and only the third since the ceasefire began at the end of November.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike and called on the United States and France, which act as guarantors of the ceasefire, to “take responsibility and force Israel to immediately stop its strikes.”

“Israel’s continued obstruction of stability will worsen tensions in the region and place it before real dangers that will threaten its security and stability,” said Aoun.

רגע התקיפה הישראלית בדאחיה https://t.co/4h3NVBdJ8D pic.twitter.com/vpewD7brc6

— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) April 27, 2025

I24 News cited an informed Israeli source who said that the U.S. administration was informed before the strike. “Everything was coordinated,” the source added.

“Under the direction of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Katz, the IDF decisively attacked an infrastructure site where Hezbollah precision missiles were stored in Beirut, which posed a significant threat to the State of Israel,” the ministers said in a joint statement on Sunday evening.

“Israel will not allow Hezbollah to grow stronger and create any threat to it – anywhere in Lebanon. The Dahiyeh district in Beirut will not serve as a sanctuary city for the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

“The Lebanese government bears direct responsibility for preventing these threats,” the ministers added. “Israel will uphold its war goal of returning the residents of the north safely to their homes.”

The IDF stressed that it had taken steps “to mitigate the risk of harming uninvolved civilians, including issuing advance warnings to the civilian population in the area and using precise munitions.”

Hezbollah supporters watch as the Israeli Air Force bombed a site in Beirut a short time ago. pic.twitter.com/zws0u4qGoy

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Late afternoon on Sunday, the IDF published a statement warning residents in the area to evacuate immediately, before it struck about an hour later.

According to a report from Qatari Al Jazeera, the IDF’s warning surprised local residents, who had not expected a strike since there had been no prior attacks on Israel, unlike the previous instance in which the IDF struck Beirut.

The warning there caused a mass evacuation from the Dahiyeh area, the report said, adding that rescue units were placed on alert ahead of the strike.

In recent weeks, the IDF increased its strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon amid signs that the terror group was attempting to restore its chain of command and military capabilities.

Earlier on Sunday, a separate Israeli strike eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist who took part in the terror group’s attempts to re-establish itself in the Halta region, the IDF stated.

Meanwhile, the discussion about the enforcement of the state’s monopoly on weapons and the disarmament of Hezbollah continues to unfold in Lebanon.

Lebanese Member of Parliament Paula Yacoubian of the reformist Forces of Change bloc condemned Hezbollah on Sunday, saying its weapons had brought “total destruction, disasters in Lebanon, whose consequences the Lebanese still feel.”

Speaking to Al Arabiya, Yacoubian said that remarks by Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem – insisting the group would not hand over its weapons and would remain part of the "resistance" – were intended to strengthen Iran’s bargaining position in its nuclear talks with the United States.

Yacoubian also expressed hope that 2025 would be a year in which “we eliminate what is illegal (such as Hezbollah's weapons), and Lebanon will enter a completely different path of law and order and rehabilitation of the institutions and the state.”