On Friday, Israel launched a rare airstrike in a densely populated area of southern Beirut, killing a senior Hezbollah military official. It was the worst such attack in the Lebanese capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting that at least 14 people were killed and dozens injured.
Major General Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said the attack on the Dahiya area south of Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, and 10 other Hezbollah operatives.
“We will continue to pursue the enemy to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya and Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galante, describing the Israeli attack on Aqil as a “new phase of war.” part of.
Hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Aqil as “a great jihadi leader” and said he “joined his brothers after a happy life full of jihad, work, trauma, sacrifice, danger , the ranks of great martyr leaders, challenges, achievements and victories.
Aqil served on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body. He is under U.S. sanctions for his alleged role in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and a U.S. Marine Corps barracks that killed more than 300 people.
Last year, the U.S. State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to his identity, location, arrest or conviction for his role in the Lebanese embassy bombings and the taking of U.S. and German hostages in the 1980s.
The attack comes as a new escalation between the enemies raises fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
The Israeli attack came hours after Hezbollah fired 140 rockets into northern Israel, where leader Hassan Nasrallah was awaiting a promise to send pagers to members of the Shiite militant group this week Massive bombings in retaliation.
The Israeli military did not provide the identities of other Hezbollah commanders it said were killed in the attack in a crowded neighborhood just a few kilometers from central Beirut.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said the attack killed at least 14 people and injured 66 others, and the Israeli army claimed that Aqil had met with other militants in the basement of the apartment building. The health ministry added that nine of the injured were in serious condition.
Footage broadcast on local Lebanese networks showed first responders searching through the rubble of a collapsed high-rise building in the Jamous area of central Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many political and security operations.
Rescue operations continued into late Friday night, hours after the attack, as the first rescuers struggled to clear rubble and reach the building’s basement, where many bodies apparently lay.
Friday’s airstrikes, the deadliest on Beirut neighborhoods since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody month-long war in 2006, occurred during rush hour, when people were leaving get off work and children were returning home from school.
At Beirut’s St. Teresa Hospital near the site of the airstrike, crowds of people flocked to donate blood to those injured in the attack.
Hussein Halak, who was waiting in line to donate blood, said: “We are all in this together, so this is my obligation.”
Galante said in Israel that he briefed senior military officials on the attack and vowed that Israel would continue its fight against Hezbollah “until we achieve our goal of ensuring the safe return of northern Israeli communities to their homes.”
The attack came after Hezbollah launched its heaviest bombardment of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, targeting Israeli military installations. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets. The few successful aircraft caused small fires, but caused little damage and no Israeli casualties.
Hezbollah said its latest rocket salvo was a response to past Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon and not retaliation for its massive bombings of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people ( A further 2,900 people were injured, including two children, in attacks widely attributed to Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week’s sophisticated attacks, which mark an escalation in the Israeli-Lebanese border conflict over the past 11 months.
Israel and Hezbollah have frequently exchanged fire since an October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel triggered a devastating Israeli military offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have mainly hit evacuated areas in northern Israel and less populated areas in southern Lebanon.
Israel last attacked Beirut when an airstrike in July killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.
“Lebanon’s attack was to protect Israel,” Hagari said at a news conference after Friday’s attack, calling Shukr and Aqil the two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Hagari also accused Aqil of orchestrating a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians decades ago, including a plan that never materialized to invade Israel in a manner similar to the October 7 attack led by Hamas North.
Hezbollah announced attacks in northern Israel after Israel launched airstrikes on Friday, saying two of the strikes targeted an intelligence base where it claimed Israel directed the assassination campaign.
Israel remains on edge, with Nasrallah vowing on Thursday to keep up the fight against Israel despite what he said was a humiliating “blow” for Hezbollah by sabotaging its communications equipment.
“We are in a tense period,” Hagari told reporters on Friday. “We are ready to be on high alert offensively and defensively.”
In recent days, Israel has dispatched powerful combat forces to its northern border, designated the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel as an official war target, and ordered citizens near the Israeli-Lebanese border to stay close to bombs. Hezbollah insists it will stop firing only if a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza.
Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli attack on Aqil as a “new crime” and a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty”.
Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza corridor continue to mount even as the world’s attention turns to rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Palestinian health authorities reported earlier on Friday that 15 people, including children, were killed in Israeli attacks on a home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
In response to a request for comment on the recent Gaza attacks, the Israeli military insisted on Friday that it had taken “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm” and accused Hamas of operating in residential areas and endangering civilians.
On October 7, Israel launched a bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages in southern Israel, causing massive destruction and killing about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population. Displaced.
