In pictures: The Israel-Hezbollah conflict
October 23
Taking cover behind a large tree, an Associated Press photographer pointed his camera toward a Beirut apartment building the Israeli military warned was in its sights.
When a missile plunged from the sky moments later, journalist and lens were perfectly positioned to document the trail of destruction — second by second, frame by frame.
"I heard the sound of the missile whistling, headed toward the building and then I started filming," photographer Bilal Hussein said Tuesday, hours after Israeli forces launched the attack.
The images Hussein captured of the projectile, frozen in mid-flight before obliterating the structure, provide a striking look at the speed, power and devastation of modern warfare.
The strike on Tuesday came roughly 40 minutes after an Israeli military spokesman posted a warning in Arabic on social media, notifying people in and around a pair of buildings on Beirut's southern outskirts that that they should evacuate the area.
He did not explain why the buildings were being targeted, other than to say they were near "interests and facilities" associated with the Hezbollah militant group.
The warning prompted many people to flee the busy, densely populated neighborhood, even as others, including a few journalists, kept watch.
By the time of the attack the building had been evacuated and there were no reports of casualties Tuesday.
Minutes before the missile brought down the building, two smaller projectiles were fired at the roof in what Israel's military often refers to as warning strikes, according to AP journalists at the scene.
It is a practice Israel has followed in staging strikes in Gaza during past wars.
Israeli soldiers raise their fists from a moving APC in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border. After launching a ground assault in Lebanon, Israel was hit by a wave of about 200 missiles from Iran.
Missiles launched from Iran towards Israel streak across the night sky as seen from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli "Iron Dome" air defence system intercepted smaller missiles.
Israelis outside were told to take shelter as the bombs fell.
Demonstrators cheer as artificial snow is sprayed in an anti-Israeli gathering celebrating Iran's missile strike at Felestin Square in Tehran, Iran.
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