Israel has struck the Dahiya area of Beirut, after Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, called for the IOF to flatten the suburb.
Israeli terrorists just attacked southern suburb of Beirut.
As usual, before any ceasefire gakes place, they do their worst to sabotage it, as it is a main goal for them to continue this genocide agaisnt our people.
No details abiut casualties yet.
Last strike on Dahiyeh 2 weeks… pic.twitter.com/rzjkLEa8qq— Hadi Hoteit | هادي حطيط (@HadiHtt) June 14, 2026
This was in response to Hezbollah drones striking an illegal Israeli military zone in the Northern occupied Palestinian territories early on Sunday.
Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine
Smotrich called for the IOF to use the ‘Dahiya Doctrine’ — an explicitly genocidal doctrine. This is Israel’s policy of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilian areas to “deter attacks”. It was named after a suburb of Beirut, which the IOF flattened in 2006.
Smotrich called on Netanyahu to:
implement it with determination and force and to demolish buildings in Dahiya today as well.
We are in critical days of shaping the space for many years to come.
As the Canary previously reported, Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies, explained Dahiya in the context of Gaza in December 2023. When looking at the early devastation, he described the horrors as:
a specific Israeli way of war that has evolved since 1948, through to its current Dahiya doctrine, which is said to have originated in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
Rogers said:
In July of that year, facing salvoes of rockets fired from southern Lebanon by Hezbollah militias, the IDF fought an intense air and ground war.
However:
Neither succeeded, and the ground troops took heavy casualties; but the significance of the war lies in the nature of the air attacks. It was directed at centres of Hezbollah power in the Dahiya area, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but also on the Lebanese economic infrastructure.
It was there in Dahiya that Israel’s genocidal impulses mutated into a new policy of annihilation.
Disproportionate force
Rogers explained:
This was the deliberate application of “disproportionate force”, such as the destruction of an entire village, if deemed to be the source of rocket fire.
One graphic description of the result was that “around a thousand Lebanese civilians were killed, a third of them children. Towns and villages were reduced to rubble; bridges, sewage treatment plants, port facilities and electric power plants were crippled or destroyed.
In short, Israeli policy goes far beyond fighting ‘terrorists’ and aims to destroy the very means of life.
Israel jeopardising the ceasefire
Iran had warned that any attack on Beirut would trigger an Iranian response, which could reignite full-scale war across the region. Importantly, though, this is what Israel does. Whenever Iran and the US are close to a ceasefire agreement, Israel drops more bombs and screws it up.
Ahead of a potential U.S.-Iran deal, the Israelis do exactly what everyone expects them to do. Bomb Beirut’s southern suburbs. https://t.co/ejkRiNe3kb
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) June 14, 2026
Israel knows that its goal of a ‘Greater Israel‘ cannot be achieved if it actually adheres to a ceasefire, so why would it?
Iran has emphasised that the ceasefire must include Israel’s illegal attacks on Lebanon. This means a strike on Dahiyeh could complicate Trump’s efforts to finalise the ceasefire.
‘Self defence’
Two Israeli fighter jets struck a residential building in Beirut at least four times.
Footage of today’s Israeli strike on a residential building in Beirut, Lebanon.
2 fighter jets were involved, 4 munitions dropped. pic.twitter.com/4cyCaSPDxQ
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 14, 2026
Of course, Israel claims the strike on Dahiya is self-defence. But no such thing under international law.
Once again lsrael claims to have bombed Beirut in “self-defense” following Hezbollah rockets/drones launches towards invading Israeli forces & northern settlements.
*Hezbollah has been responding to Israel violations of the ceasefire & invasion by firing rockets/drones towards… https://t.co/yfTtuf0mxa pic.twitter.com/Ve9enDdvsD
— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) June 14, 2026
On the other hand, anyone living under illegal occupation has the legal right to armed resistance and self-defence, under international law.
You cannot invade and illegally occupy sovereign territory and expect the native population to just roll over.
Israelis are living in an alternate reality. One in which Arab lives don’t matter, and actions don’t have consequences.
Feature image via Ryan Murphy/Getty Images
By HG
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