Telling evidence confirms Israeli forces repeatedly failed to protect civilians and distinguish between military targets and residential areas in its 2023 and 2024 raids on Lebanon, as documented by Human Rights Watch.
Zainab Nabha, the mother of one of the victims, captures the devastating impact of these indiscriminate attacks: "My daughter was killed by Israel when it targeted a peaceful residential neighbourhood."
Incident Summary
On the night of 21 October 2024, the Israeli military bombed the Al-Miqdad neighbourhood in the Jnah district, south of Beirut. Unlike the mass displacement observed in Beirut’s southern suburbs, this area had not witnessed a large-scale evacuation. On the contrary, families displaced from the southern suburbs had sought refuge in Jnah, including the Habib Bazzi family, which lost six members in the strike. In multiple press interviews following the attack, residents of the neighbourhood stated that they had believed themselves to be in a safe area.
The strike occurred on the twenty-eighth day of the expansion of the war on Lebanon, which began on 23 September 2024. Since then, Israeli attacks had been concentrated on southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The targeted neighbourhood, however, lies outside the southern suburbs, on their periphery.
No prior warning was issued by the Israeli army to evacuate the area. Instead, on the same night, evacuation warnings were directed to buildings in two distant locations: Laylaki and Ouzai.
Eyewitness testimonies suggest that the number of martyrs reached 42, including non-Lebanese nationals. In contrast, the Ministry of Health reported 18 deaths, including four children, and 60 injuries. The discrepancy is likely due to differing methodologies in casualty accounting between the two sources.
Al-Miqdad is an informal residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital. It derives its name from the Al-Miqdad family, among the first to move there from their home villages due to economic hardship, specifically from Lassa in the Jbeil district (Mount Lebanon Governorate) and Maqneh in the northern Beqaa. These early settlers established the area, which now accommodates both Lebanese families and a number of foreign labourers, including Syrians and Sudanese.
Rashid Al-Miqdad, a long-time resident since the early 1990s, confirmed to The Legal Agenda that the neighbourhood is built on communal land and that its buildings are unlicensed. He traces its origins back to the early 1970s. The area is densely populated, with buildings constructed haphazardly and in close proximity, making vehicular access difficult in certain parts, an issue echoed by both residents and journalists in their coverage of the attack.
The neighbourhood lies in very close proximity to the Rafic Hariri University Hospital. At a press conference the day after the attack, Acting Director-General of the Ministry of Public Health, Fadi Sinan, stated that the hospital houses a large number of international organisations, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Médecins Sans Frontières. He described the attack as one of the most dangerous types of strikes, prohibited under all international and global conventions and treaties.
This attack is the subject of the current investigation, which relies on open-source material gathered from social media posts, photographs, videos, and satellite imagery. Our analysis aimed to establish several key points: that the strike took place in a densely populated residential area, in immediate proximity to a hospital (Rafic Hariri Hospital) which sustained damage; that it occurred outside the zones for which the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings that night; and therefore that it was a strike on a civilian area without prior warning. After completing the open-source analysis, we conducted field interviews with neighbourhood residents and the families of victims. Their testimonies aligned with our investigative findings.
Legal Conclusion: These findings and the supporting evidence reinforce the hypothesis that the strike constitutes a war crime: targeting residential buildings in a densely populated area adjacent to a hospital, resulting in a high civilian death toll without prior warning; an act that cannot be justified even in the presence of a military target. The strike violates the principles of proportionality and precaution. The findings of this investigation also refute Israeli claims that it had warned residents in advance and that the hospital remained undamaged.
Timestamp Analysis
On X, the spokesperson for the Israeli military published an evacuation warning accompanied by two maps. The notice was addressed to “all residents present in the southern suburb area,” specifically those in the buildings marked on the attached maps and in adjacent buildings, namely in the “Qareb Slope” (Munhadar al-Qareb) and Laylaki areas. The warning instructed residents to evacuate immediately and to “stay at least 500 metres away” from the marked locations. (Qareb Slope is located in the Ouzai area, while Laylaki is situated in the southern suburbs of Beirut).
By extracting the post’s timestamp identifier (1848441399349317656) and analysing it via the TweetedAt website, it was determined that the warning was published at 22:09:06 (Beirut local time) on Monday, 21 October 2024.
Half an hour later, at precisely 22:39, the National News Agency published a report indicating that an airstrike had occurred in the vicinity of Rafic Hariri Hospital in the Jnah area. At the same time, the television channel "Al Mayadeen" also posted a report, citing its correspondent, confirming “an Israeli airstrike at the entrance of the Martyr President Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital in the Jnah area.”
Upon reviewing visual content related to the incident posted on X, we identified a video shared by the account “Masdar Mas’oul” (Authoritative Source) at 22:43:18 local time. The video referenced the bombing of “Al-Miqdad neighbourhood” and showed smoke rising beside the hospital’s side façade. Shortly thereafter, at 22:48:31, the Sawt Beirut account posted about the strike, reporting that it had taken place near the hospital. Another user, @israa02m, posted a nighttime image of smoke billowing after the explosion. This final image was instrumental in determining the direction of the smoke plume; an element we later clarify in the section on geolocation.
Based on these findings, the likely window during which the attack occurred on Monday, 21 October 2024, can be narrowed to between 22:09:06, the time the Israeli army issued its evacuation warning for “Munhadar al-Qareb” in Ouzai, and 22:48:31, when the first official report specifically mentioning the strike on Al-Miqdad neighbourhood in Jnah was published.
Geolocation Analysis
To determine the exact site of the strike, we relied on visual content published in the aftermath of the incident. This included footage showing debris removal in a BBC video report, live coverage from Al Mayadeen the following day, and a video posted shortly after showing a person running through the street.
Several media outlets reported that the bombing had struck the Al-Miqdad neighbourhood in the Jnah area and that the location was close to the entrance of the Rafic Hariri University Hospital. We began by identifying the hospital’s location and found images uploaded by a user to Google Maps that matched the window façade visible in the video posted by the account “Masdar Mas’oul” (Authoritative Source).
In the video, the person filming appears to be moving forward and to the left. Visible in the frame are what appear to be sunshades in the hospital’s car park. By examining the direction of movement and the visual elements in the footage, we were able to determine the origin of the smoke plume—that is, the likely location of the strike. The screenshot taken from the video aligned with the hospital’s main entrance.
Following further analysis using Google Maps, we were able to identify the impacted site.
Further analysis of the image posted by Israa on X also pointed to the same location, clearly showing the Ministry of Public Health building and a UNRWA-affiliated building and warehouse. The photo was captured from a football pitch in Bir Hassan behind the UNRWA buildings at coordinates 33.865609, 35.493427.
Reviewing available online visual content, we matched distinctive landmarks visible in video footage. We observed several features, such as a telecommunications tower, a tall building with a distinctive canopy-like roof, a building with a unique interior wall paint colour exposed after half its façade was destroyed, and a palm tree adjacent to trees on an opposite street.
By visually matching the surrounding buildings in the attack footage with imagery from Google Maps, we pinpointed the damaged site in Al-Miqdad neighbourhood, Jnah area, opposite Rafic Hariri Hospital at coordinates 33.861872, 35.491933.
Satellite Imagery Analysis
To verify the extent of the actual damage, we compared recent satellite images with archival photos from the SkySat satellite. One image was taken on 25 August 2024, approximately two months before the incident, and another on 31 October 2024, roughly ten days after the attack. The damage was evident, showing three completely destroyed buildings and about six surrounding buildings sustaining partial damage.
This brings us back to the fact that the neighbourhood is working-class and densely populated. To determine the scale of the damage perimeter caused by the attack, we used Google Earth, which showed that the destruction extended across an area estimated at 99.92 metres in perimeter and covering approximately 662.21 square metres.
The affected neighbourhood is very close to Hariri Hospital, placing it within its zone. Measurement shows the hospital is located about 100 metres from the attack site, causing significant material damage and triggering panic among civilians and patients, particularly amidst recurring Israeli attacks on medical institutions and ambulance crews.
News reports filmed from inside the hospital documented the damage inflicted by the attack, which even shattered glass in patient rooms. During the press conference held the day after the strike, the hospital’s General Director, Jihad Saadeh, described the damage as "extensive," noting the broken glass across departments, including the pharmacy's storefront—risking medication spoilage due to temperature-control requirements. He also mentioned significant damage to solar panels and walls amidst the difficult economic conditions facing public hospitals operating with limited resources during wartime.
Saadeh stated in a call with The Legal Agenda that the dialysis ward façade also sustained major damage, noting that the hospital continued to provide essential services despite ongoing Israeli assaults on the southern suburbs. These services included opening new departments to receive patients from southern suburb hospitals due to their lack of safety and accessibility. He explained that intensive care patients were transferred from Al-Rasoul Al-Azam Hospital in Bourj Al-Barajneh to a Hariri Hospital ward established during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hospital's clinics served as a vital hub for displaced individuals seeking medical check-ups.
Saadeh emphasized during the press conference that clear markings on the hospital roof indicate its status as a protected facility under the laws of war, yet it still suffered damage from flying shrapnel.
Context of the Incident in Relation to Temporal and Geolocation Analysis
First: The Threat Against the Relatively Nearby Sahel Hospital
On 21 October 2024, precisely at 20:59, the Israeli military spokesperson published a post alleging that "Hezbollah keeps hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold beneath Sahel Hospital in Haret Hreik"—a hospital located about 1.28 km away from Rafic Hariri Hospital. He claimed these funds were "used to finance its terrorist activities," attaching a video and images described as "illustrative." This was further explained in detail by Daniel Hagari, the official spokesperson for the Israeli army, in a video announcement published on the Israeli army's X account, asserting that Israel was monitoring the hospital and would not target it.
The statements by the spokesperson and Hagari functioned as a threat against this hospital for several reasons:
- The threat came 28 days after the expansion of the Israeli war on Lebanon (23 September 2024), during which Israel shelled health centres, ambulance crews, and hospitals, mostly in southern Lebanon. Consequently, these statements caused panic among patients and medical staff at Sahel Hospital, leading to its evacuation despite the director's denial of the Israeli claims. Prior to this threat, the hospital had already suffered from nearby bombardment, sometimes as close as 500 metres. More than 20 medical and nursing staff members were unable to reach it, knowing that its total staff across all departments is no less than 500.
- This threat mirrored Israel's previous threats against Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where it displayed drawings of tunnels beneath it and claimed Hamas used them as infrastructure, days before bombing the hospital entrance and subsequently storming it.
- The mention of funds beneath the hospital came just one day after the spokesperson threatened what he called "infrastructure belonging to the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, affiliated with Hezbollah," under the pretext of "funding a large part of Hezbollah's terrorist activities"—the exact same justification used for threatening Sahel Hospital. Indeed, that night following the warning, Israel launched over 19 airstrikes on civilian buildings belonging to Al-Qard Al-Hassan in various regions—attacks considered by "The Legal Agenda" to amount to war crimes because financial assets alone do not constitute a legitimate military target.
All of this terrorised civilians as news spread about the targeting of the neighbourhood near the hospital, leading them to initially believe the attack was on Rafic Hariri Hospital as part of Israel's war on the health sector. This was evident in several social media posts initially reporting that the hospital had been targeted. This may have resulted from "inaccurate news circulated by some social media sites indicating the presence of a Hezbollah depot in Rafic Hariri University Hospital due to a translation error," according to a hospital statement published on October 23. The statement added: "To clarify facts, an Al Arabiya Al Hadath channel reporter went to the hospital to film all warehouses to verify the actual situation and correct the translation error." The hospital director appeared during the tour explaining that the confusion stemmed from a translation error.
Second: Targeting Outside the Warnings
On 21 October, specifically at 22:09—one hour and ten minutes after threatening Sahel Hospital—the spokesperson issued an evacuation warning "to residents present in the southern suburb area, specifically in the buildings specified in the attached maps and adjacent buildings in Laylaki and Munhadar al-Qareb." Reading the maps reveals the following:
Laylaki Area:
The warning was issued for a building near Al-Sadeq School and Nursery opposite Al-Shater butchery, or Al-Jaradi butchery as named in the Israeli army map. The building is located precisely at coordinates 33.83331, 35.515795, which is about 3.90 km away from the attack site under investigation.
Munhadar al-Qareb:
A location near Al-Nasr Mosque on the coastline where a warning was issued to evacuate the Ouzai area at coordinates 33.843149, 35.484122, which is about 2.21 km from the investigation strike point, making it the closest warned location that day.
Searching further among user posts about the Ouzai (Munhadar al-Qareb) attack on X, we found the earliest publisher we could reach, on Monday, 21 October 2024 at 22:39:06 local time.
Al Mayadeen channel published a report citing its correspondent regarding the targeting of Ouzai. The page indicates the report was published at 22:35 local time.
It is likely that the Ouzai strike occurred between 22:09:06, the time of the warning, and 22:35, the time of the first official report. Comparing this time range with the probable timeframe for the Al-Miqdad strike, both events likely occurred with a minimal time gap.
Summary: This analysis leads to the conclusion that the Israeli army targeted a civilian neighbourhood far outside the warning scope, and thus it was never included in any warning.
Allegations Regarding the Attack
The Israeli military frequently announces targeted individuals or what it calls military objectives, especially in strikes without prior warnings. In our search of the official Israeli army and spokesperson accounts on X, we found no clarifications or justifications for the Al-Miqdad neighbourhood attack, but rather general mentions in a series of attacks carried out by Israel that day.
The Israeli army page published a post on October 22 mentioning that the army struck "weapons storage facilities, command centres and additional terrorist targets belonging to Hezbollah in Beirut," claiming that "before the strikes, many steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including issuing accurate and advance warnings," possibly referring to the Ouzai and Laylaki attacks.
Searching for any other Israeli allegations connecting the Al-Miqdad strike to a military objective or leading figure, we found:
- Reuters reported that the Israeli army announced on October 22, the day after the attack, that it struck a Hezbollah target near Hariri Hospital, did not target the hospital, and that it suffered no damage.
- In January 2025, months after the incident, "BBC" published a video investigation stating that the Israeli army, in response to their inquiry, claimed the target of the bombardment was "a Hezbollah command centre housing a senior operative," but refused to provide further details or the name of the targeted figure.
Notably, Hezbollah stopped announcing the deaths of its fighters after the war expanded on September 23, 2024, continuing only to mourn its leaders. Our search for anyone mourned by Hezbollah after October 21 did not yield any name connected to the strike. Furthermore, testimonies from neighbourhood residents confirmed no Hezbollah centres existed at the targeted location.
Regarding other claims, a small number of accounts on social media posted news about targeting an Amal Movement centre. However, this claim was denied by the movement and reported by media outlets. This rumor likely stemmed from the region's character where the movement holds widespread influence. No entity, including Israel, adopted this claim.
Refuting Israeli Allegations
We cannot definitively ascertain whether a military objective existed at the targeted site, but according to The Legal Agenda’s legal team, even if a legitimate military objective existed, the principle of proportionality must be respected, prohibiting attacks expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury, or damage to civilian objects that would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (Rule 14 of Customary International Humanitarian Law). The attack led to the deaths of 18 civilians, including children, according to the Ministry of Health.
As for Israel's claim that the hospital did not sustain damage, news reports and video footage have proven otherwise, showing the extent of damage to the facility, particularly the dialysis unit, pharmacy, and solar panels. The hospital is located only 100 metres from the attack point.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the Israeli attack near Hariri Hospital, recalling the special protection enjoyed by hospitals and demanding a prompt, thorough investigation.
According to The Legal Agenda’s legal team, which published a war crimes report regarding this strike, it forms part of Israel's methodology to destroy civilian facilities, specifically health sector infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Up to the date of the Al-Miqdad attack, Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs had put 7 hospitals completely out of service, while only two others operated for emergency cases.
The laws of war prohibit targeting hospitals and medical staff caring for the wounded and sick. Respecting the principle of precaution requires taking all feasible precautions to spare civilian lives and objects. Greater effort must be made to respect precaution when military actions are near hospitals, according to the legal team.
The legal team also noted the spokesperson’s threat against Sahel Hospital, claiming Hezbollah deposited funds under it, without striking it. This was categorized as prohibited acts of violence that compel hospital staff to evacuate, depriving the wounded and sick of wartime protections and spreading terror among civilians.
In this context, during the Israeli war on Lebanon, Israel launched unwarned attacks on residential buildings, including those housing displaced people, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians and sometimes entire families.
Resident Testimonies Aligned with Investigation Findings
One year after the attack, The Legal Agenda visited Al-Miqdad neighbourhood in Jnah, south of Beirut, and spoke with residents and victim families whose testimonies matched the investigation's findings. A Syrian witness who preferred anonymity stated that the attack occurred around 22:20, noting that his wife and son were in the neighbourhood when targeted, and he was on his way to evacuate them following the Ouzai warning.
"I was afraid my son would hear the sound, and even more afraid the blast would affect the building—it is illegal, unsafe, and might not withstand a strong shockwave. As soon as the Ouzai warning was published, I headed towards Jnah. Reaching the Kuwaiti Embassy—a distance requiring less than 10 minutes—I heard the sound of the strike on Jnah. I estimate the strike occurred at most 10 minutes after the warning."
Rashid Al-Miqdad, a neighbourhood resident who lost eight family members in the strike including 3 children, stated that the attack occurred precisely at 22:22. "As soon as the Ouzai warning was posted and while I was outside the neighbourhood, I called my son to tell him. Minutes later, I heard his screams. I remember well, it was 22:22," he says.
Al-Miqdad noted that 42 people were killed, including Syrians and a Sudanese national, as "the neighbourhood is working-class and attracts workers." He added that this toll is in addition to about five missing Syrian nationals. Regarding damaged buildings, he confirmed that three 3-storey buildings were completely destroyed along with two ground-floor homes, while 10 buildings containing 60 homes suffered direct damage.
Al-Miqdad points out that when he called his son to inform him of the Ouzai warning, it was not out of fear of an attack on the neighbourhood, but out of concern for shockwaves or tremors. "We are here meters away from Hariri Hospital, and this made us feel safe as it is protected in wars. Many neighbourhood residents, as usual when facing nearby warnings, used to go to the hospital courtyard."
Besides the hospital's presence, Al-Miqdad, a resident since the 1990s, noted he knows all residents and there are no party centres, leading them to rule out any direct attack.
Al-Miqdad told us the neighbourhood dates back to the 1970s when families from the Al-Miqdad clan migrated from Maqneh and Lassa, noting it is administratively counted under Beirut and cadastrally under Ghobeiry, built on common land.
Zainab Nabha, who lost her 19-year-old daughter Alaa Bilal Dabbous in the strike, told The Legal Agenda she was born in this neighbourhood and always considered it safe as residents are well-known civilians. She stated that on the day of the attack, immediately after the Ouzai warning, she decided to go to Hariri Hospital's courtyard "in anticipation of shattered glass or blast shockwaves, as residents usually do." Just as she began preparing, she felt the shockwave of the strike hitting the neighbourhood.
Zainab's daughter was martyred while sitting outside the neighbors' house. "My tears haven't dried. My daughter was killed by Israel when it targeted a safe residential neighbourhood. My daughter was sitting with her friends in front of the house, and I lost her."
To this day, as witnesses confirmed, no one from the Lebanese state has contacted them, and no official body has recorded their testimonies.