BEIRUT — As a bomb fell on a multi-story building in Beirut’s Tayouneh neighborhood Friday, hundreds of onlookers gathered in the street at a roundabout several hundred meters away.

Among them was an Associated Press photographer. Hassan Ammar had donned his bulletproof vest and helmet and rushed to the scene – taking up positions at a safe distance using a long lens – after the Israeli army issued a warning of evacuation with a map indicating the targeted building.

The Israeli military said the building contained facilities belonging to the Israeli military. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

However, Ammar had different associations with the building. He had grown up less than a kilometer (less than 0.6 miles) away and had been there several times.

When he was a child, during the 15-year Lebanese civil war that ended in 1990, “this building stood on the front line between the Muslim and Christian neighborhoods,” the so-called Green Line, he remembers.

But over the next few years, Ammar said, he visited the building “several times.” There was a notary on the first floor and next door was a sporting goods store where he used to shop. Next to the building was a cemetery where his family had relatives buried.

“I know that very well,” he said.

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

When he heard the sound of the projectile above him, Ammar had already trained his camera on the building at a high shutter speed, and he immediately began taking photos, capturing the bomb in the air and during its descent, ending with a massive explosion. .

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but much of the building was reduced to rubble.

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

“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wiring harness cover and tail fin section, correspond to a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s JDAM (Joint Directed Attack Munition) tail kit,” he said.

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

A few weeks earlier, another AP photographer, Bilal Hussein, had captured a almost identical scene as a similar, powerful bomb hit a nearby building in Beirut.

The Israeli military has said it is taking steps to reduce civilian casualties by issuing warnings before many of its strikes in Lebanon.

More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during the 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most since mid-September – about 27% of whom were women and children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

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