BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – At least 37 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a Beirut suburb on Friday, including three children and seven women, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday.
Hezbollah said overnight that 16 of its members were among those killed in the deadliest attack in a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and that senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another senior commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among the dead.
The Israeli military, in posts on X, said the strike hit an underground meeting 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 attacks continued on Saturday, with Israeli warplanes carrying out some of their heaviest bombing raids in 11 months of fighting in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah claiming rocket attacks on military targets in northern Israel.
Friday’s attack sharply escalated the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group, dealing another blow to 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 have been injured.
The attacks on communications devices are 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 attack that at least 23 people were still missing.
“The Israeli enemy is leading the region to war,” he said.
The ministry had sent vehicles and equipment to help rescuers dig through collapsed buildings.
“We have been pulling women and children out from under the rubble,” he said.
‘NEW PHASE’
Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death in a statement shortly after midnight, calling him “one of its top leaders.”
Overnight, it was reported that 15 other members were also killed, including senior commander Wahbi, who oversaw military operations of Radwan forces during the Gaza war until early 2024.
The strike on Friday afternoon targeted a building next to a kindergarten, which was hit hard by the strike, a security source said on Friday.
A second security source said several missiles hit the entrance to a building’s garage. The blast spread through the lower levels of the building as Aqil met with other commanders inside.
In a brief statement carried by Israeli media late Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week that 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 their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in October in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s nearly year-long war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Saturday that airspace in northern Israel – from the city of Hadera northwards – was closed to private flights, but that the measure did not affect international flights.
“These restrictions were put in place to maintain flight safety 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 now surpassed 740. The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought an all-out war in 2006.
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said on Friday that the attack in a densely populated area of Beirut’s southern suburbs was part of “an extremely dangerous cycle of violence with devastating consequences. This must end now.”
Friday’s attack was the second in less than two months in which Israel has targeted a senior 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 confined to areas near the border, this week’s escalation has raised fears that it could widen and escalate further.