On Friday, Israel launched a uncommon airstrike in a densely populated space of southern Beirut, killing a senior Hezbollah navy official. It was the worst such assault within the Lebanese capital in many years, with Lebanese authorities reporting that a minimum of 14 folks have been killed and dozens injured.
Main Normal Daniel Hagari, the Israeli navy’s chief spokesman, mentioned the assault on the Dahiya space south of Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, and 10 different Hezbollah operatives.
“We’ll proceed to pursue the enemy to defend our residents, even in Dahiya and Beirut,” mentioned Israeli Protection Minister Yov Galante, describing the Israeli assault on Aqil as a “new section of warfare.” a part of.
Hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s dying. In a press release, the Lebanese militant group described Aqil as “an amazing jihadi chief” and mentioned he “joined his brothers after a cheerful life filled with jihad, work, trauma, sacrifice, hazard , the ranks of nice martyr leaders, challenges, achievements and victories.
Aqil served on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s prime navy physique. He’s below U.S. sanctions for his alleged position within the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and a U.S. Marine Corps barracks that killed greater than 300 folks.
Final yr, the U.S. State Division provided a $7 million reward for info resulting in his id, location, arrest or conviction for his position within the Lebanese embassy bombings and the taking of U.S. and German hostages within the Eighties.
The assault comes as a brand new escalation between the enemies raises fears of an all-out warfare within the Center East.
The Israeli assault got here hours after Hezbollah fired 140 rockets into northern Israel, the place chief Hassan Nasrallah was awaiting a promise to ship pagers to members of the Shia militant group this week Huge bombings in retaliation.
The Israeli navy didn’t present the identities of different Hezbollah commanders it mentioned have been killed within the assault in a crowded neighborhood just some kilometers from central Beirut.
The Lebanese Well being Ministry mentioned the assault killed a minimum of 14 folks and injured 66 others, and the Israeli military claimed that Aqil had met with different militants within the basement of the house constructing. The protection ministry added that 9 of the injured have been in critical situation.
Footage broadcast on native Lebanese networks confirmed first responders looking via the rubble of a collapsed high-rise constructing within the Jamous space of central Dahiya, the place Hezbollah conducts many political and safety operations.
Rescue operations continued into late Friday night time, hours after the assault, as the primary rescuers struggled to clear rubble and attain the constructing’s basement, the place many our bodies apparently lay.
Friday’s airstrikes, the deadliest on Beirut neighborhoods since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody month-long warfare in 2006, occurred throughout rush hour, when folks have been leaving get off work and youngsters have been returning residence from college.
At Beirut’s St. Teresa Hospital close to the location of the airstrike, crowds of individuals flocked to donate blood to these injured within the assault.
Hussein Halak, who was ready in line to donate blood, mentioned: “We’re all on this collectively, so that is my obligation.”
Galante mentioned in Israel that he briefed senior navy officers on the assault and vowed that Israel would proceed its struggle towards Hezbollah “till we obtain our purpose of guaranteeing the secure return of northern Israeli communities to their properties.”
The assault got here after Hezbollah launched its heaviest bombardment of northern Israel in almost a yr of combating, concentrating on Israeli navy installations. Israel’s Iron Dome missile protection system intercepted many of the Katyusha rockets. The few profitable plane precipitated small fires, however precipitated little harm and no Israeli casualties.
Hezbollah mentioned its newest rocket salvo was a response to previous Israeli assaults in southern Lebanon and never retaliation for its huge bombings of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed a minimum of 37 folks ( An additional 2,900 folks have been injured, together with two youngsters, in assaults broadly attributed to Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement on this week’s subtle assaults, which mark an escalation within the Israeli-Lebanese border battle over the previous 11 months.
Israel and Hezbollah have regularly exchanged fireplace since an October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel triggered a devastating Israeli navy offensive in Gaza. However earlier cross-border assaults have primarily hit evacuated areas in northern Israel and fewer populated areas in southern Lebanon.
Israel final attacked Beirut when an airstrike in July killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.
“Lebanon’s assault was to guard Israel,” Hagari mentioned at a information convention after Friday’s assault, calling Shukr and Aqil the 2 navy officers closest to Hezbollah chief Nasrallah.
Hagari additionally accused Aqil of orchestrating a sequence of assaults towards Israeli troopers and civilians many years in the past, together with a plan that by no means materialized to invade Israel in a way just like the October 7 assault led by Hamas North.
Hezbollah introduced assaults in northern Israel after Israel launched airstrikes on Friday, saying two of the strikes focused an intelligence base the place it claimed Israel directed the assassination marketing campaign.
Israel stays on edge, with Nasrallah vowing on Thursday to maintain up the struggle towards Israel regardless of what he mentioned was a humiliating “blow” for Hezbollah by sabotaging its communications gear.
“We’re in a tense interval,” Hagari informed reporters on Friday. “We’re able to be on excessive alert offensively and defensively.”
In current days, Israel has dispatched highly effective fight forces to its northern border, designated the return of tens of hundreds of displaced residents to their properties in northern Israel as an official warfare goal, and ordered residents close to the Israeli-Lebanese border to remain near bombs. Hezbollah insists it is going to cease firing provided that a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza.
Hamas, which continues to struggle Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli assault on Aqil as a “new crime” and a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty”.
Palestinian casualties within the besieged Gaza hall proceed to mount even because the world’s consideration turns to rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Palestinian well being authorities reported earlier on Friday that 15 folks, together with youngsters, have been killed in Israeli assaults on a house and a gaggle of individuals on the road in Gaza Metropolis. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed a minimum of 41,000 Palestinians, based on Gaza’s well being ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.
In response to a request for touch upon the current Gaza assaults, the Israeli navy insisted on Friday that it had taken “possible precautions to mitigate civilian hurt” and accused Hamas of working 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 folks and taking 250 hostages in southern Israel, inflicting huge destruction and killing about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants. Displaced.
