Footage shows residential building collapsing in mere seconds after Israeli strike

Extraordinary footage shows the moment a multistorey residential building collapsed, replaced by a cloud of debris in mere seconds.

Extraordinary footage from Beirut shows the moment an Israeli air strike hit a multistorey residential building, causing it to collapse.

One moment the building is standing. A mere five seconds later, it has been replaced by a cloud of dust and debris.

Israel has been bombing Lebanon and its capital relentlessly since late September, escalating a conflict that had been simmering since Hamas’s attack on October 7.

For almost a full year, Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah had been trading potshots across the border.

Hezbollah, a political party and paramilitary group backed by Iran, repeatedly fired missiles into Israel in solidarity with Hamas.

The daily air strikes from Israel’s military since late September have targeted Hezbollah assets and personnel across much of Lebanon, particularly the country’s south, but nowhere has been pommeled more than the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Multiple videos currently circulating on social media, which have been verified by media outlets, show the strike on a multistorey building in the city’s suburb Shayah.

Witnesses can be seen watching, or fleeing, as a bomb falls from the sky and strikes the foundation of what appears to be an apartment complex.

The building immediately, and completely, collapses, sending a plume of smoke into the air and debris flying. Local authorities have not yet said whether anyone was inside, or whether there were fatalities.

Israel says the building housed “Hezbollah facilities”.

A rocket fired by an Israeli war plane approaches a building in Beirut's southern suburb of Shayah. Picture: AFP

Mere seconds later. Picture: Fadel Itani/AFP

Smoke rises from the site. Picture: AFP

Israel typically issues warnings to local residents shortly before it bombs structures in residential areas. The IDF says it targets buildings that are being used for Hezbollah activities, whether that be housing militants or “financing terror”.

The warnings, which are posted on social media, identify specific buildings the Israeli military is about to hit and urge civilians to evacuate the area.

According to Lebanese health authorities, Israeli strikes killed more than 60 people today, bringing the total death toll in the country to about 2500.

In the Gaza Strip, which has been targeted for the past year, about 42,000 have reportedly died. Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, claims most of the victims are women and children.

Israel takes out Hezbollah leader’s successor

Today the IDF confirmed that, in strikes earlier this month, it “eliminated” Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Hezbollah itself has yet to address the claim.

The confirmation follows an allusion to Safieddine’s death by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address on October 8.

In that speech, directed at the Lebanese people, Mr Netanyahu said his military had taken out “thousands of terrorists”, including “Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement”.

Hashem Safieddine. Picture: Khaled Desouki/AFP

Late on Tuesday, local time, the IDF provided more detail on the strike that killed Safieddine and other top Hezbollah officials.

It said the air force had “conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters,” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.

The statement added that over 25 Hezbollah militants were present in the headquarters during the strike, “including Bilal Saib Aish, who was in charge of aerial intelligence gathering”.

A member of Hezbollah’s decision-making body, and a distant relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine had been out of contact since Israeli strikes on Beirut weeks ago, a high-level Hezbollah source said at the time.

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP in early October that the deeply religious cleric Safieddine, who had good relations with Hezbollah backer Iran, was the “most likely” candidate for the party’s top job.

Grey-bearded and bespectacled, Safieddine bore a striking resemblance to his distant cousin Nasrallah, but was several years his junior, aged in his late 50s or early 60s.

“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” the Israeli army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said in a statement today.

– with AFP

Originally published as Footage shows residential building collapsing in mere seconds after Israeli strike