Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the biggest attack in the Lebanese capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the attack.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari 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 in order to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli attack targeting Akil as part of “a new phase of war.”
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 his brothers, great martyr leaders, after a life blessed with jihad, works, wounds, sacrifices, dangers. challenges, achievements, and victory.”
Akil serves on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council. He was sanctioned by the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombings that killed more than 300 people at the US Embassy in Beirut and a US Marine Corps barracks.
Last year, the US State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to the identification, location, arrest or indictment, citing his role in the bombing of the embassy and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The attack is a new cycle of escalation between the adversaries that has fueled fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
Hours before the Israeli attack, Hezbollah hit northern Israel with 140 rockets as the area awaits revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah through a mass explosion this week from a fence belonging to members of the Shiite militant group.
The Israeli military has not released the identity of the other Hezbollah commander suspected of being killed in the attack in a crowded 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 hit an apartment building where Israeli soldiers claimed Akil had met with other militants in the basement. Nine injured people are in serious condition, the ministry added.
Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing first responders sifting through the rubble of collapsed high-rise buildings in the Jamous region in the heart of Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations.
Rescue operations continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the attack, as first responders struggled to clear the rubble until they reached the basement of the building where many bodies were found.
Friday’s airstrike – the deadliest attack on the Beirut neighborhood since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody war in 2006 – struck during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children returning home from school.
At the St. Therese in Beirut, near the site of the airstrike, crowds gathered to donate blood for those injured in the attack.
“I am together in this situation, it is my duty,” said Hussein Harake, who was queuing to donate blood.
From Israel, Gallant said he briefed senior military officials on the attack and vowed Israel would continue to fight Hezbollah “until we achieve our goal, ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.”
The attack came after Hezbollah launched one of the heaviest bombardments in northern Israel in nearly a year of war, mainly targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts most Katyusha rockets. The few that passed caused small fires but caused little damage and no Israeli casualties.
Hezbollah described the latest wave of rocket salvos as a response to past Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon – not in retaliation for the mass explosions of Hezbollah fences and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people – including two children – and wounded. Another 2,900 in attacks attributed to Israel.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week’s sophisticated attack, which marked a major escalation in the past 11 months of conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since October 7 Hamas attack in the south of Israel ignited the Israeli military which destroyed the attack in Gaza. But previous crusades have mostly hit areas in northern Israel that have been evacuated and sparsely populated areas in southern Lebanon.
The last time Israel attacked Beirut was a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.
“The attack on Lebanon is to protect Israel,” Hagari told a news conference after Friday’s attack, describing Shukr and Akil as the two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Hagari also accused Akil of planning a decades-long series of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, including a never-realized plan to attack northern Israel in a manner similar to the October 7 attacks led by Hamas.
After the Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah announced attacks on northern Israel, two of which it said were targets of intelligence bases from where it claimed Israel was directing the killings.
Israel remains on edge, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to continue attacks on Israel despite downplaying the “blows” he said Hezbollah suffered in the sabotage of its communications equipment.
“We are in a tense moment,” Hagari told reporters Friday. “We are ready with vigilance both offensively and defensively.”
In recent days, Israel has sent a strong military force to the northern border, defined as the official goal of the war to return tens of thousands of displaced people to their homes in northern Israel and ordered residents near the Israeli border with Lebanon to stay close to bombs. shelter. Hezbollah has maintained that it will only cease fire when there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli attack targeting Akil as a “new crime” and a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
Even as the world’s attention turns to the rise in Israeli-Hezbollah tensions, Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip continue to rise.
Palestinian health authorities reported early Friday that 15 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a family home and a group of people on a street in Gaza City. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
In response to a request for comment on the latest Gaza attack, the Israeli military insisted on Friday that it was taking “possible precautions to minimize civilian casualties” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.
Israel’s bombing 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 – caused massive damage and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
