Fadel Itani is used to Israeli attacks in his homeland.
The 39-year-old photographer from Beirut captured a series of stunning images of IDF missiles destroying skyscrapers in one fell swoop early Wednesday morning.
Itani, a freelance photographer with more than 16 years of experience, told NBC News that he learned of the upcoming attack from an alert sent by the Israel Defense Forces.
Residents have been warned to evacuate the Batula district of the Lebanese capital due to the presence of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
“Bombs have been falling on Beirut for the past two weeks,” he said from his home on Wednesday.
While the other players ran away from the attack, Itani headed in the opposite direction.
He hopped on his motorbike and traveled a short distance from his parents’ home, taking up a position at the back of a parking lot about 400 meters from where the Israelis claimed they were targeting.
Armed with just his camera and wide-angle lens, he wore a protective vest and helmet and watched and waited.
After waiting for about an hour, he said he heard the sound of the missile at around 6 a.m. local time (12 a.m. ET) and immediately fired off a series of images at 1/3000 seconds, capturing the moments before the missile hit the building and the aftermath of the explosion.
Within seconds, the building was reduced to rubble.
