Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike in the Lebanese capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 dead and dozens injured in the attack.
Israel’s top military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari, said the strike in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, as well as 10 other Hezbollah operatives.
“We will continue to pursue our enemies to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, Beirut,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, describing the Israeli strike targeting Akil as part of “a new phase of war.”
Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil’s death. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as “a great jihadist leader” and said he “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers. challenges, achievements and victories”.
Aqeel served in Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council. He was sanctioned by the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 people at the US Embassy in Beirut and US Marine Corps barracks.
Last year, the US State Department announced a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest or conviction, citing his role in the embassy bombing and the seizure of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the decade of 1980.
The blow came as a new round of escalation between the foes raised fears of full-scale war in the Middle East.
Hours before the Israeli strike, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets as the region awaited revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for this week’s mass blasts on pagers belonging to members of the Shiite militant group.
The Israeli military has not released the identities of the other Hezbollah commanders reportedly killed in its strike in the busy neighborhood, just kilometers from downtown Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 14 people were killed and 66 others wounded in the attack, which leveled the apartment building where the Israeli military claimed Akil was meeting other militants in the basement. Nine of the injured are in serious condition, the ministry added.
Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing first responders wading through the rubble of a collapsed high-rise in the Jamous district in the heart of Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations.
The rescue operation continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the attack, as first responders struggled to clear the rubble to reach the basement of the building where many of the bodies were apparently located.
Friday’s airstrike – the deadliest such attack on a Beirut neighborhood since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody, months-long war in 2006 – came at rush hour, as people were leaving work and children heading home from school.
At the hospital of St. Therese in Beirut near the site of the airstrike, crowds flocked to donate blood for those injured in the attack.
“We’re all in this situation together, so it’s my obligation,” said Hussain Harakeh, who lined up to donate blood.
From Israel, Gallant said he informed senior military officials of the strike and vowed that Israel would press against Hezbollah “until we achieve our goal of ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.”
The strike came after Hezbollah launched one of its heaviest bombardments in northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepted most Katyusha missiles. The few that passed caused minor fires, but caused little damage and no Israeli casualties.
Hezbollah described its latest wave of rockets as a response to earlier Israeli raids in southern Lebanon – not in retaliation for Hezbollah’s mass pager and broadcast blasts on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people – including two children – and injured 2,900 others. in attacks widely attributed to Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week’s complex attacks, which marked a major escalation in the past 11 months of conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire regularly since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel sparked the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. However, previous cross-border attacks have largely hit areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less populated areas of southern Lebanon.
The last time Israel hit Beirut was in an airstrike in July that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Sukur.
“The attack on Lebanon is to protect Israel,” Haggari told a news conference after Friday’s strike, describing both Shukr and Akil as the two military personnel closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Hagari also accused Akil of planning a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians dating back decades, including a plan to invade northern Israel that never materialized in a manner similar to the October 7 attacks led by Hamas.
After Friday’s Israeli airstrike, Hezbollah announced attacks in northern Israel, two of which it said targeted an intelligence base from where it claimed Israel directed assassinations.
Israel remains on edge, with Nasrallah vowing on Thursday to continue strikes on Israel despite what Hezbollah said was a humiliating “blow” in the sabotage of its communications equipment.
“We are in a tense period,” Hagari told reporters on Friday. “We are prepared on high alert both offensively and defensively.”
In recent days, Israel has sent a strong fighting force to the northern border, making it an official war objective to return tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel and ordering civilians near Israel’s border with Lebanon to stay near bomb shelters. . Hezbollah has maintained that it will stop its fire only when there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli strike on Akil as a “new crime” and a “violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty”.
Even as the world’s attention turns to rising Israel-Hezbollah tensions, Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip have continued to mount.
Palestinian health authorities said early Friday that 15 people, including children, were killed in Israeli strikes that targeted a family home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has already killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Responding to a request for comment on the latest attacks in Gaza, Israel’s military insisted on Friday that it had taken “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.
Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip – launched in response to Hamas killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages in southern Israel on October 7 – has caused massive destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2 .3 million.
