Lebanese worry nowhere is safe amid widespread Israeli bombing

Fears grew across Lebanon after Israel launched a strike on a residential building in central Beirut, marking a fresh escalation in a devastating bombing campaign.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fears grew across Lebanon on Monday after Israel launched a strike on a residential building in central Beirut, marking a fresh escalation in a devastating bombing campaign that local officials say has already killed more than 1,000 people.

"There's no safe place guaranteed in Lebanon," Jihan Kaisi, the executive director of the Union of Relief and Development Association, an organization helping displaced people across the country, said.

As many as 1 million people have been driven from their homes during the latest violence, according to Lebanon's prime minister.

"The Cola area is crowded with families, with displaced families who came to this area thinking it's safe," Kaisi told NBC News after the Israeli strike hit a building in the city’s densely populated district just a stone’s throw from downtown Beirut.

"We were shocked this area was bombed," she said of the strike, which appeared to mark Israel's first attack on the capital’s center since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Palestinian militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said early Monday morning that three of its members were killed in the strike in central Beirut, where humanitarian workers said many civilians had sought shelter, believing the Lebanese capital's center to be safe from Israel's bombardments.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/lebanon-israel-beirut-hezbollah-bombing-nowhere-safe-rcna173216

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