Israel says it killed Hezbollah officials in Beirut airstrike
The Israeli military on Friday carried out an airstrike in Beirut that it said killed several senior Hezbollah officials, including a top commander wanted by the United States for his role in bombings in the 1980s that killed hundreds.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group backed by Iran, did not immediately confirm that the commander, Ibrahim Akil, had been killed in the strike. Residents described a chaotic scene as ambulances raced through the streets. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured, including children.
The attack represented a major escalation in a week full of them, stoking fears an all-out war could erupt between Hezbollah and Israel.
Pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members exploded en masse Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands in an attack widely attributed to Israel. On Thursday, Israel pummeled southern Lebanon in one of the most intense bombardments in nearly a year of fighting.
The Israeli strike Friday flattened at least one residential high-rise building in the heart of Dahiya, a densely populated neighborhood of Beirut widely seen as a Hezbollah stronghold, according to witnesses and Lebanon’s civil defense agency.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, told reporters that Akil was killed as he met other senior commanders underneath the building in an attempt to “use civilians as human shields.”
The New York Times could not independently verify that information.
Hagari described Akil as the chief of Hezbollah’s military operations directorate and the de facto commander of the Radwan force, an elite commando unit. Akil – as well as several Radwan commanders killed in the same strike – was an architect of a never-implemented Hezbollah invasion of northern Israel similar to that of the Hamas-led assault of southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hagari said.
Akil’s assassination, if confirmed, would be the latest in a series of humiliating blows to Hezbollah, which began firing missiles and drones at Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has struck across Lebanon in response, prompting months of conflict that have displaced more than 150,000 people in both countries.
What else to know
Heavy bombardment: The building in Beirut was one of more than 100 sites, mostly in southern Lebanon, that Israel struck since Thursday evening. Lebanese officials said the strikes overnight were some of the heaviest bombardment there in months of back-and-forth attacks.
Hezbollah barrage: Hezbollah launched more than 140 rockets into Israel on Friday. Israel said its air defenses had intercepted some of the rockets and others fell in unpopulated areas.
Hezbollah scrambles: Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, sounded defiant in a speech Thursday, saying Hezbollah would not cease cross-border strikes against Israel. But the group was also struggling to formulate an appropriate response to the attack, analysts said. Nasrallah said it had formed committees to investigate the lapses that led the pagers and radios to be compromised.
Gaza residents’ fears: As world attention focuses on heightening Israel-Hezbollah tensions, some Palestinians in Gaza worry that efforts to end the nearly yearlong war and humanitarian crisis there will be sidelined.
Lebanon on edge: After the explosions of Hezbollah-owned devices, people in Lebanon fear others could explode, avoiding cellphones and unplugging baby monitors, televisions and laptops. Lebanon’s aviation authority banned pagers and walkie-talkies from all flights leaving Beirut.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.