Leading Hezbollah commander ‘killed’ in Israeli attack

A source close to Hezbollah in Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed one of its top military leaders; Israel confirmed it was a “targeted attack” in Beirut.

The source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the Israeli attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut killed the leader of Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit, Ibrahim Aqil.

A total of three people were killed and 17 injured, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.

Israel said it had carried out a “targeted attack” in Beirut. A security official said an airstrike hit the Hezbollah stronghold in the south of the city.

The airstrike is the third on Beirut's southern suburbs since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. The focus of violence has shifted dramatically from Gaza to Lebanon this week.

In attacks blamed on Israel, senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in July and the leader of the Hamas-allied Palestinian militia Saleh al-Aruri was killed in January.

– Explosions of communication devices –

Israel had previously said on Friday that Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon after air strikes destroyed dozens of the militant group's launch pads.

On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed retaliation for deadly sabotage attacks on Hezbollah's communications systems, for which he blamed Israel.

Israel has not commented on the communications equipment explosions, but the escalating violence followed the announcement that it would shift its war aims to the northern border with Lebanon.

For almost a year, Israeli firepower was focused on the Palestinian militia Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli troops also engaged in almost daily clashes with Hezbollah.

The escalating exchanges came as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss this week's attacks on Hezbollah pagers and radios that killed 37 people and injured thousands in two days.

Hezbollah said it had attacked at least six Israeli military bases with rocket fire after what it called one of the heaviest bombardments to date in southern Lebanon overnight.

“About 140 rockets were fired from Lebanon within an hour,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

The military said its fighter jets had hit the infrastructure overnight and that “about 100 launch pads” were ready.

Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, without providing further details.

– “Fear of a bigger war” –

Residents of Marjayoun, a Lebanese town near the border, said the nightly bombardment was one of the heaviest since border contact began last October.

“We were very scared, especially for my grandchildren,” said Nuha Abdo, 62. “We moved them from one room to another.”

Elie Rmeih, a 45-year-old clothing store owner, counted more than 50 strikes.

“It was a terrifying scene and unlike anything we have experienced since the escalation began.

“We live in fear of a bigger war. We don't know where to go.”

International mediators have repeatedly tried to prevent a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah and to contain the regional fallout from the Gaza war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

In his first speech since the communications equipment explosions, Nasrallah warned that Israel should expect retaliation.

Nasrallah described the attacks as a “massacre” and a possible “act of war” and said Israel would “face just punishment where it expects it and where it does not.”

In cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, hundreds of people, mostly fighters, were killed in Lebanon and dozens in Israel.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have fled their homes.

In a speech to troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah will pay a rising price” as Israel tries to ensure “the safe return” of its citizens to the border areas.

“We are at the beginning of a new phase of the war,” he said.

– 'Shocking' –

Senior UN officials expressed concern about the legality of the sabotage of Hezbollah's communications equipment.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk described the explosions as “shocking” and said their impact on civilians was “unacceptable”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, desperate to salvage efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release the hostages, called on all sides to exercise restraint.

“We do not want to see escalating actions by any side” that would jeopardize the goal of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, he said.

The October 7 Hamas attacks that sparked the Gaza war left 1,205 Israelis dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by militants, 97 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 41,272 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military retaliation offensive in Gaza, according to figures from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area. The United Nations has recognized the figures as reliable.

In the latest outbreak of violence in Gaza, eight people were killed in an airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the territory's civil defense. Another six people, including children, were killed in a separate attack on an apartment in Gaza City, it said.

– “Sabotaged at the source” –

According to the preliminary results of a Lebanese investigation, it was assumed that the exploded pagers were booby-trapped, a security official said.

The Lebanese UN mission echoed this view, saying in a letter that the investigation had shown that “the target devices had been professionally booby-trapped prior to their arrival in Lebanon … and that they were detonated by sending emails to the devices.”

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the exploded pagers were manufactured by Hungary-based BAC Consulting on behalf of Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, citing intelligence officials who said BAC was part of an Israeli front organization.

A government spokesman in Budapest said the company was “a trading agent with no production or operating facility in Hungary.”

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