A top Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut, along with abut 10 senior officials on Friday, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, the death toll from Friday’s Israeli airstrike on Beirut to 14, with 66 more people wounded, nine of them with serious injuries.
Ibrahim Aqil, the Head of Hezbollah’s Operations Unit, was killed during the deadly attack on the southern suburbs of the city.
He had served on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council, and was sanctioned by the United States for allegedly being involved in two attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the US Embassy in Beirut.
“This elimination is intended to protect the citizens of Israel,” he said in a brief statement to the press, adding that Israel was not seeking regional escalation”.
The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital flattened two apartment buildings, with images showing injured people being removed from the rubble.
In a social media post, the Iranian embassy also condemned the “Israeli madness” and targeting of residential buildings, while Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli attack is an “escalation” of Israel’s “crimes” in Lebanon.
Earlier Friday, Hezbollah hit northern Israel with at least 140 rockets targeting several Israeli military sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defence bases, as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armoured brigade.
Israel’s military said the rockets came in three waves Friday afternoon, targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah said the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes late Thursday evening, while the IDF claimed their flurry of strikes in southern Lebanon struck more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers.
White House spokesman John Kirby said he was not aware of any effort by Israel to notify the US before carrying out a deadly strike in Beirut.
“I am certainly not aware of any brief notification of those strikes,” Mr Kirby told reporters during a call Friday, adding that the failure by Israel to inform the Biden Administration was “not atypical”.
He said he would “let the IDF speak to their operations,” before re-iterating US travel advice warning its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Friday afternoon to discuss the recent mass explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon, with the government in Beirut and Hezbollah blaming Israel.
It comes after at least 37 people have been killed and thousands more injured in Lebanon after the communication devices used by Hezbollah exploded in what is widely-believed to be an audacious Israeli sabotage operation.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack represented “criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards”, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s focus has moved to the northern front as a “new phase” of the war is beginning.
“The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north,” Gallant added.
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