Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut on Friday. It was the deadliest strike on the Lebanese capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting that at least 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack.
Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said the raid on Beirut's southern suburbs killed Ibrahim Akil, commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, and 10 other Hezbollah members.
“We will continue to pursue our enemies in order to defend our citizens, even in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said, describing the Israeli strike on Akil as part of a “new phase of the war.”
Hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Aqeel’s death. In a statement, the Lebanese party described Aqeel as a “great jihadi leader” and said he had “joined the ranks of his great martyred brothers, after a blessed life filled with jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements and victories.”
Aqil was a member of Hezbollah’s top military body, the Jihad Council, and was sanctioned by the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and a U.S. Marine barracks that killed more than 300 people.
Last year, the U.S. 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 holding of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The strike comes at a time when a new cycle of escalation between the enemies has raised fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
Hours before the Israeli strike, Hezbollah had bombarded northern Israel with 140 rockets, as the region awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah after this week's mass explosions of communications equipment belonging to members of the Shiite militant group.
The Israeli military has not revealed the identities of other Hezbollah leaders allegedly killed in its raid on the crowded neighbourhood just kilometres from central Beirut.
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 14 people were killed and 66 wounded in the attack that destroyed the apartment building where the Israeli military said Akil was meeting with other militants in the basement. Nine of the wounded were in critical condition, the ministry said.
Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing rescue workers searching the rubble of a collapsed building in the Jamous area in the heart of the southern suburb, where Hezbollah carries out many of its political and security operations.
Rescue operations continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the attack, as rescuers struggled to remove rubble to reach the basement of the building where many bodies appeared to be.
Friday's airstrike – the deadliest such attack on a Beirut neighborhood since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody month-long war in 2006 – occurred during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children were returning home from school.
At St. Therese Hospital in Beirut, near the site of the airstrike, crowds flocked to donate blood for those wounded in the attack.
“We are all in this together so it is my commitment,” said Hussein Harki, who lined up to donate blood.
From Israel, Galant said he had briefed senior military officials on the strike and pledged that Israel would continue to press against Hezbollah “until we achieve our goal, and ensure the safe return of residents of northern communities in Israel to their homes.”
The strike came after Hezbollah launched some of its heaviest barrage of rockets into northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, targeting mainly Israeli military positions. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyushas. The few that did penetrate the dome sparked small fires but caused little damage and no Israeli casualties.
Hezbollah described the latest wave of rockets as a response to previous Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon — not retaliation for the mass explosions of Hezbollah radio pagers on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people — including two children — and wounded 2,900 others in attacks widely attributed to Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week's sophisticated attacks, which marked a major escalation in the 11-month-old conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire regularly since Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on October 7, which sparked Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have mainly hit evacuated areas of northern Israel and less populated parts of southern Lebanon.
The last time Israel hit Beirut was in an airstrike last July that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr.
“The attack in Lebanon aims to protect Israel,” Hajari said in a news conference following Friday's strike, describing Shukr and Aqil as the two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hagari also accused Akil of planning a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians dating back decades, including a never-realized plan to invade northern Israel in a manner similar to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.
After the Israeli airstrike on Friday, Hezbollah announced attacks on northern Israel, saying two of them targeted an intelligence base from which Israel allegedly directed assassinations.
Israel remains on alert, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to continue strikes on Israel despite the humiliating “blow” he said Hezbollah suffered as a result of the sabotage of its communications equipment.
“We are in a tense period. We are ready on high alert offensively and defensively,” Hagari told reporters on Friday.
In recent days, Israel has sent a strong fighting force to the northern border, set as an official goal of the war the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel, and ordered residents near Israel’s border with Lebanon to stay close to bomb shelters. Hezbollah has stressed that it will only cease fire when there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli raid targeting Aqil, describing it as a “new crime” and a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
While the world's attention is focused on escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, the number of Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip continues to rise.
Palestinian health authorities said early Friday that 15 people, including children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes that targeted a family home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Israeli campaign in Gaza has already killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Asked to comment on the recent strikes in Gaza, the Israeli military insisted on Friday that it had taken “all possible precautions to mitigate harm to civilians” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.
The Israeli bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip — launched in response to Hamas killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage in southern Israel on October 7 — has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
