BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -At least 37 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday, including three children and seven women, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday.
Hezbollah said overnight that those killed in the deadliest strike in a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel included 16 of its members, and that senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another top commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among the dead.
The Israeli army, in posts on X, said the strike hit an underground gathering of Aqil and senior commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, and had “almost completely dismantled” Hezbollah’s military chain of command.
Heavy cross-border strikes continued on Saturday, with Israeli warplanes carrying some of its heaviest bombardment in 11 months of fighting across Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah claiming rocket attacks on military targets in Israel’s north.
Friday’s strike sharply escalated the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group, and inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks this week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded.
The total death toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured.
The attacks on communications devices were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Hezbollah-aligned transport minister Ali Hamieh told reporters at the scene of Friday’s strike that at least 23 people were still missing.
“The Israeli enemy is taking the region to war,” he said.
The ministry had dispatched vehicles and equipment to help rescuers dig through the collapsed buildings.
“We’ve been taking out women and children from under the rubble,” he said.
‘NEW PHASE’
Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death in a statement just after midnight that called him “one of its top leaders”.
It said overnight that 15 other members were also killed, including senior commander Wahbi, who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan forces during the Gaza war until early 2024.
The Friday afternoon strike targeted a building next door to a nursery, which suffered from the impact of the strike, a security source said on Friday.
A second security source said multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building’s garage. The explosion tore into the building’s lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside.
In a brief statement on Friday evening carried by Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week Israel was 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.”
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in October in sympathy with Palestinians in the nearly year-old Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s military said on Saturday that airspace in northern Israel – from the city of Hadera north – was closed to private flights, but that the measure did not affect international flights.
“These restrictions were set in place to maintain the security of flights and in accordance with operational activity,” the military said.
‘DANGEROUS CYCLE OF VIOLENCE’
With at least 70 people killed in Lebanon this week, the death toll in the country since October has surpassed 740. The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought an all-out war in 2006.
The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said on Friday the 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.”
Friday’s strike marked the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander.
While the current conflict has largely been contained to areas at or near the frontier, this week’s escalation has heightened concerns that it could widen and further intensify.
