Taking cover behind a large tree, an Associated Press photographer pointed his camera toward a Beirut residential 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.