An AP photographer captured a bomb falling on a building in his childhood neighborhood

BEIRUT — When a bomb hit a high-rise apartment building in Beirut’s Taiyoune neighborhood on Friday, hundreds of onlookers gathered outside at a roundabout a few hundred meters (yards) away.

Among them was an Associated Press photographer. Hassan Ammar donned a bulletproof vest and helmet and rushed to the scene — taking up his position at a safe distance with a long lens — after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning with a map marking the target building.

The Israeli army said that the building contained objects belonging to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

However, Ammar had other associations with the building. He grew up less than a kilometer (less than 0.6 miles) away, and he’s been there many times.

When he was a child during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, “this building was on the front line between Muslim and Christian areas,” the so-called “green line,” he recalled.

But in the years that followed, Ammar said, he visited the building “many times.” There was a notary on the first floor, and next door was a sporting goods store where he shopped. Next to the building was a cemetery where his family buried loved ones.

“I know that very well,” he said.

Ammar said he even once thought about renting an apartment in the building that was affected or in the building next door — he can’t now remember which — because it had a beautiful view of the pine trees in Horsh Beirut, a large public park. nearby. .

When he heard the sound of a shell overhead, Ammar had already set his camera on the building at a high shutter speed, and he immediately began taking pictures, capturing the bomb in mid-air and as it descended, ending with a loud explosion.

No injuries were reported, but most of the building was reduced to rubble.

Richard Weir, senior crisis, conflict and weapons researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed close-up photos of Friday’s blast to determine what type of weapon was used.

“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the spar, wire harness cover, and tail, are consistent with a 2,000-pound Mk-84 series general-purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s Joint Directed Attack Munition (JDAM). “, he said.

Weir added that “the use of large air-dropped bombs such as these, which have large-scale impacts in populated areas, carries significant risks to civilians and civilian objects.”

A few weeks earlier, another AP photographer, Bilal Hussain, captured a an almost identical scene when an equally powerful bomb hit a nearby building in Beirut.

Israel’s military says it is taking steps to reduce civilian casualties, issuing warnings before many of its strikes in Lebanon.

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, more than 3,200 people have been killed in 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon — most of them since mid-September — of whom about 27 percent were women and children.

The story continues