Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills Hezbollah commander responsible for 1983 Marine barracks bombing

BEIRUT — Israel launched a rare airstrike on Friday that killed a senior Hezbollah military officer in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood, the deadliest such attack on the Lebanese capital in decades. Lebanese authorities reported at least 14 people dead and dozens wounded in the attack.

Israeli military chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the attack on Beirut's southern district of Dahiya killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, and ten other Hezbollah members.

“We will continue to pursue our enemies to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya in Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli attack on Akil as part of a “new phase of the war.”

A few hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil's death. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as a “great jihadist leader” and said he had “joined the train of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, successes and victories.”

Akil was a member of Hezbollah's highest military body, the Jihad Council. The US had imposed sanctions on him for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut and the US Marine Corps barracks, which killed over 300 people.

Last year, the U.S. State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, whereabouts, arrest or conviction, citing his role in the embassy bombing and hostage-taking of American and German people in Lebanon in the 1980s.

The attack came at a time when a new cycle of escalation between the two enemies raised fears of a full-scale outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Hours before the Israeli attack, Hezbollah had fired 140 rockets at northern Israel as the region awaited revenge announced by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for the mass explosions of pagers by members of the Shiite militant group.

The Israeli military did not disclose the identities of the other Hezbollah commanders it said were killed in its attack on the densely populated neighborhood just miles from downtown Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 14 people were killed and 66 others injured in the attack. The residential building, in the basement of which Akil had met with other militants, according to the Israeli army, was razed to the ground. Nine of the injured were in serious condition, the ministry added.

Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing first responders searching the rubble of a collapsed high-rise building in the Jamous neighborhood in the heart of Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations.

Rescue efforts continued until late Friday, a few hours after the attack, as rescue workers scrambled to clear away the rubble and reach the basement of the building, where many of the bodies appeared to be located.

Friday's airstrike – the deadliest such attack on a Beirut neighborhood since the months-long bloody war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 – occurred during rush hour, as people left work and children were on their way home from school.

Crowds gathered outside St. Therese Hospital in Beirut, near the scene of the airstrike, to donate blood for those injured in the attack.

“We are all in the same boat in this situation and it is my duty,” said Hussein Harake, who stood in line to donate blood.

From Israel, Gallant said he had informed senior military officials about the attack and promised that Israel would continue to fight Hezbollah “until we have achieved our objective and ensured the safe return of communities in northern Israel to their homes.”

The attack came after Hezbollah launched one of its heaviest bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year, targeting mainly Israeli military sites. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets. The few that got through started small fires but caused little damage and there were no Israeli casualties.

Hezbollah described its latest barrage of rockets as a response to past Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon – rather than revenge for the mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people – including two children – and wounded 2,900 others in attacks widely attributed to Israel.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in this week's sophisticated attacks, which mark a significant escalation in the 11-month-long conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged regular fire since Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which sparked the Israeli military's devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have mainly hit evacuated areas in northern Israel and sparsely populated parts of southern Lebanon.

The last time Israel hit Beirut was an airstrike in July that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.

“The attack in Lebanon is to protect Israel,” Hagari said at a press conference after Friday's attack, describing both Shukr and Akil as the two military officers closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.

Hagari also accused Akil of planning a series of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians over decades, including a never-realized plan to invade northern Israel that was similar to the October 7 attacks led by Hamas.

Following Friday's Israeli airstrike, Hezbollah announced attacks on northern Israel. Two of them allegedly targeted an intelligence base from which Israel allegedly ordered the attacks.

Israel remains on edge, and Nasrallah vowed on Thursday to continue attacks on Israel despite what he said was a humiliating “blow” Hezbollah suffered from the sabotage of its communications equipment.

“We are in a tense phase,” Hagari told reporters on Friday. “We are on high alert both offensively and defensively.”

In recent days, Israel has deployed a large military force to its northern border, declared the return of tens of thousands of displaced people to their homes in northern Israel an official war aim, and ordered citizens near the border with Lebanon to stay near bomb shelters. Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in the Gaza Strip, condemned the Israeli attack on Akil as a “new crime” and “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

As the world's attention turns to escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, the number of Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip continues to rise.

Palestinian health authorities reported on Friday that 15 people, including children, were killed in Israeli strikes that targeted a family home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. Israel's campaign in Gaza has already killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

When asked for comment on the recent attacks on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military insisted on Friday that it had “taken possible precautions to reduce the harm to the civilian population” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians through its operations in residential areas.

Israel's bombing and invasion of Gaza – which came in response to Hamas' killing of 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage in southern Israel on October 7 – has caused enormous destruction and forced around 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to flee.

Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bassam Hatoum in Beirut and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.