Eight people were killed and dozens injured on Friday in an attack on a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital Beirut, with a source close to the movement saying a top military leader was killed.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a “targeted attack”, while the Lebanese Health Ministry said eight people were killed and 59 others injured in the attack.
A source close to Hezbollah, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Ibrahim Aqeel, the head of its elite Radwan unit, was killed in an attack on the terror group’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
This is the third airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, with the epicentre of violence shifting dramatically from Gaza to Lebanon this week.
Earlier this year, attacks blamed on Israel killed Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Shukr and Saleh al-Aruri, a leader of its allied Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“The Israeli air strike killed Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqeel, the second-in-command of its armed forces after Fuad Shukr,” a source close to Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah has not officially confirmed his death, but after the attack it said it had attacked an Israeli intelligence base, which it claimed was responsible for unspecified “killings”.
The United States had offered a $7 million reward for information leading to Aqeel’s arrest, describing him as a “key member” of an organisation that claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people.
Footage posted on social media and verified by AFP showed smoke rising over southern Beirut on Friday.
Communications equipment explosion
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have been fighting each other along the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas launched a war by attacking Gaza on October 7.
For nearly a year, the focus of Israeli forces has been on Gaza, but as Hamas has weakened, the focus of the war has shifted dramatically to Israel’s northern border.
Almost daily border clashes for months have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, most of them combatants, and dozens in Israel, and forced thousands on both sides to flee their homes.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah carried out unprecedented attacks which it has blamed on Israel, although Israel has yet to comment on them.
The attack destroyed communications equipment of thousands of Hezbollah activists over two days, killing 37 and injuring thousands more.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that Israel would avenge the bombings.
Earlier on Friday, Israel said Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon after the air strikes, destroying dozens of the terrorist group’s launchers.
This week Israel announced it was shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon.
Addressing troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said: “Hezbollah will pay an increasing price” as Israel attempts to “ensure the safe return” of its citizens to the border areas.
“We are at the beginning of a new phase of the war,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed his scheduled departure for the United States by a day, where he is to address the UN General Assembly, citing the situation in the northern front.
Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at at least six Israeli military targets. The overnight bombing was described by people in southern Lebanon as the worst bombing they had ever seen.
‘Fear of wider war’
Residents in the Lebanese town of Marjayoun, near the border, said the overnight bombardment was the heaviest since clashes began along the border last October.
“We were very scared, especially for our grandchildren. We were moving them from one room to another,” said Nuha Abdo, 62.
Eli Rameh, 45, a clothing store owner, counted more than 50 strikes.
“It was a terrifying scene and we have never experienced anything like it before as tensions escalated.
“We are living in fear of a widespread war, you don’t know where to go.”
A call for restraint
International mediators are trying to prevent the Gaza war from turning into a full-blown regional conflict.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is struggling to save efforts for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, called on all sides to exercise restraint.
He said “we don’t want to see any aggressive action by any side” that would jeopardize the goals of the Gaza ceasefire.
According to an AFP calculation based on Israeli official figures, the Gaza war that broke out as a result of attacks by Hamas on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians. This figure also includes hostages who died in captivity.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by the militants, 97 are still in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations has deemed reliable.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
