At least 50 people killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza in the last 24 hours | World News

At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours.

At least 37 people were killed in an attack on the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, including three children and seven women, said the country's health minister, Firas Abiad.

Fifteen of the 68 people injured in the attack are still in hospital.

Ali Harake, the head of the rescue team searching the rubble, told Sky News his team was still looking for 17 to 18 missing people – but he feared no one had survived.

On Saturday evening, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel had launched further “extensive” attacks in southern Lebanon, with “dozens” of aircraft and rocket launchers attacking “terrorist targets.”

He said this was due to the “detection of Hezbollah preparation to shell Israeli territory.”

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Two high-ranking Hezbollah commanders killed

Two apartment blocks are said to have collapsed in Friday's attack in a densely populated southern district – the deadliest attack on Beirut in decades.

Great Hezbollah It is believed that the commanders met in the basement of one of the buildings.

Hezbollah confirmed that two of its senior commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, were killed in the attack, while an Israeli military spokesman said at least 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed.

Wahbi oversaw the military operations of the Radwan Special Forces – a commando unit that seeks to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Israel – until early 2024. Aqil was also a senior commander of the Iran-backed group.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas called Aqil's killing a “crime” and “folly”, adding that Israel would “pay the price”.

Read more: Israeli airstrike on Beirut delivers further shock to a country already shaken to the core

The Israel Defense Forces have imposed restrictions on gatherings in the Lower Galilee, Upper Galilee, Haifa Bay, Central Galilee and some parts of the Golan Heights, including limiting outdoor gatherings to 30 people and imposing restrictions on work and school attendance.

These restrictions come in addition to those already in place for communities living on the front line.

Meanwhile, according to a local report, at least 13 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City.

The attacks are believed to have hit several schools in the southern part of the city where displaced people are housed.

The attacks came after Hezbollah launched one of the heaviest bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, mostly targeting Israeli military sites.

The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.

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Hezbollah said its latest wave of rocket attacks was a response to previous Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.

It happened days after Hezbollah’s mass explosions Pagers and walkie-talkies At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and about 2,900 others were injured in the attack, which is widely attributed to Israel.