Key Points
- An Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut has killed at least 14 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
- The Israeli military said it targeted a senior Hezbollah commander, with the group later confirming his death.
- The strike comes after days of attacks in Lebanon in which pagers and walkie-talkies exploded, killing dozens.
An Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut has killed 14 people, including a top commander of militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil had been killed along with other senior members of an elite Hezbollah unit in the strike, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the group.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 14 people died and the toll was expected to climb as rescue teams worked through the night.
Earlier, the military said at least 66 people were injured, nine of whom were in critical condition.
A second security source said at least six other Hezbollah commanders died when multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building’s garage. The explosion tore into the building’s lower levels as Akil met other commanders inside.
The explosion tore into the building’s lower levels as Akil met other top commanders inside.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud whistling and several consecutive blasts at the time of the strike.
In a brief statement carried by Israeli media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, who has said this week that Israel is launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X: “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
A security source said the attack was carried out with missiles that blasted into the opening of a building’s garage. Source: AAP / Bilal Hussein/AP
Hezbollah confirmed early on Saturday that Aqil had been killed, calling him “one of its top leaders” without providing further details on his killing.
Its media office issued two statements on Friday night saying the group had fired rockets at two Israeli positions at 8.40pm, hours after the Israeli attack.
Tens of thousands of people have fled from homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began rocketing Israel in what it says is sympathy with the Palestinians in parallel to the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel, which last fought an all-out war against Hezbollah 18 years ago, has said it will use force if necessary to ensure its citizens can return.
The Israeli military described Aqil as the acting commander of the Radwan special forces unit, and said it had killed him along with about 10 other senior commanders.
People gather in front of a damaged building after the strike in Beirut. Source: AAP / Wael Hamzeh/EPA
Aqil sat on Hezbollah’s top military council, sources in Lebanon told the Reuters news agency.
The strike inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks on the group in which , killing 37 people and wounding thousands.
Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Local broadcasters showed groups of people gathered near the site, and reported they were searching for people who had been in the vicinity and were still missing, most of them children.
Drones were still flying over Beirut’s southern suburb hours after the strike.
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert said Friday’s strike in a densely populated area of Beirut’s southern suburbs was part of “an extremely dangerous cycle of violence with devastating consequences. This must stop now.”
The strike marked the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut.
In July, an , the group’s top military commander.
Aqil has a $US7 million ($A10 million) bounty on his head from the United States over his link to the deadly bombing of Marines in Lebanon in 1983, according to the US State Department website.
The Israeli military said Aqil had been head of Hezbollah operations since 2004 and was responsible for a plan to launch a raid on northern Israel, similar to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October that triggered the war in Gaza.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people during the group’s October 7 attack on Israel, taking around 250 hostages.
The Israeli military’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
With reporting by Reuters
