Israeli strike on Beirut killed 31, Lebanese ministry says
At least 31 people died in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut
suburb on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday, including
three children and seven women, in the deadliest strike in a year of conflict
between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah said overnight that the dead included 16 of its
members, including senior leader Ibrahim
Aqil and another top commander, Ahmed Wahbi.
The strike sharply escalated the conflict between Israel and
the Iran-backed group and inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of
attacks this week in which pagers
and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded. The total death toll
in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured.
The attacks on communications devices were widely believed
to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its
involvement.
Hezbollah-aligned transport minister Ali Hamieh told
reporters at the scene of Friday's strike that at least 23 people were still
missing.
“The Israeli enemy is taking the region to war,” he said.
The ministry had dispatched vehicles and equipment to help rescuers dig through
the collapsed buildings. “We’ve been taking out women and children from under
the rubble,” he said.
Hezbollah confirmed Aqil's death in a statement just after
midnight that called him "one of its top leaders".
It said overnight that 15 other members were also killed,
including senior commander Wahbi, who oversaw the military operations of the
Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until
early 2024.
The Friday afternoon strike targeted a building next door to
a nursery, which suffered impact from the strike, a security source said on
Friday.
A second security source said multiple missiles slammed into
the opening of a building's garage. The explosion tore into the building's
lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside.
In a brief statement on Friday evening carried by Israeli
media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's goals were clear and its
actions spoke for themselves.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week that
Israel is launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X:
"The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is
achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes."
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes
on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing rockets
at Israel in October in sympathy with Palestinians in the nearly year-old
Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel's military said on Saturday that airspace in northern
Israel - from the city of Hadera north - was closed to private flights, but
said the measure did not affect international flights.
"These restrictions were set in place to maintain the
security of flights and in accordance with operational activity," the
military said.
With at least 70 people killed in Lebanon this week, the
death toll in the country since October has surpassed 740. The current conflict
between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought an all-out war in
2006.
The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis
Plasschaert, said on Friday that the strike in a densely populated area of
Beirut's southern suburbs was part of "an extremely dangerous cycle of
violence with devastating consequences. This must stop now."
Friday's strike marked the second time in less than two
months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in
Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad
Shukr, the group's top military commander.
While the current conflict has largely been contained to
areas at or near the frontier, this week's escalation has heightened concerns
that it could widen and further intensify.
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