Images capture the exact moments an Israeli bomb strikes a building in Beirut

Taking cover behind a large tree, an Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein pointed his camera toward a Beirut apartment building the Israeli military warned was in its sights.

When a bomb plunged from the sky moments later, journalist and lens were perfectly positioned to document the trail of destruction.

“I heard the sound of the missile whistling, headed toward the building and then I started filming,” photographer Bilal Hussein said.

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 came roughly 40 minutes after an Israeli military spokesperson 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.