Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Attack on Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel said an elite Hezbollah commander was killed in an attack Friday on a resistance stronghold in Beirut. Lebanese officials said the attack killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

Ibrahim Aqil, also wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, headed the elite Radwan unit of the Iranian-backed militant group.

AFP journalists at the scene said the explosion left a huge crater and destroyed the lower floors of a skyscraper on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

Aqil’s killing was the second assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander since the beginning of the Gaza war, following another Israeli attack on Beirut in July in which Fuad Shukr was killed.

The incident followed two waves of explosions Tuesday and Wednesday on communications devices used by Hezbollah members, which Hezbollah blamed on Israel. The explosions killed dozens of people and plunged Hezbollah into an impasse, with the focus of Israel’s war with Hamas shifting dramatically north.

The Israeli military said on Friday it carried out a “deliberate attack” to kill Aqil, which also killed about 10 other senior Radwan commanders.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 12 people were killed and 66 injured in the attack.

Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said Aqil was killed in the attack.

“The Israeli airstrike killed Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil, deputy commander of the armed forces after Fuad Shukr,” a source close to Hezbollah said.

Hezbollah has not officially confirmed his death, but after the attack the organization said it had fired rockets at an Israeli intelligence base, which it blamed for unspecified “killings.”

The United States has offered a $7 million reward for information on Aqil, describing him as a “core member” of an organization that has claimed responsibility for the 1983 embassy bombing that killed 63 people.

EXPLOSIONS OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES

Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have been battling each other on the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas sparked the Gaza war with an October 7 attack.

For almost a year, Israel focused its firepower on the Gaza Strip, but with Hamas significantly weakened, the center of gravity of the war has shifted dramatically toward Israel’s northern border.

Months of near-daily border clashes have left hundreds dead in Lebanon, mostly militants, and dozens in Israel. Thousands on both sides have been forced to flee their homes.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah was the victim of an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel. Israel has not commented on the matter so far.

As a result of the attack, thousands of Hezbollah fighters’ communication devices exploded over two days, killing 37 people and injuring thousands more.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced on Thursday that Israel would be punished for the attacks.

Earlier on Friday, Israel said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon following airstrikes that destroyed dozens of the militants’ launchers.

Addressing troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah will pay an increasingly high price” as Israel seeks to “ensure the safe return” of its citizens to the border areas.

“We are at the beginning of a new phase of the war,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed by a day his planned flight to the United States, where he was to address the UN General Assembly, with one official citing the situation on the northern front.

Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah said it had hit at least six Israeli military bases with rockets in an overnight bombardment that residents of southern Lebanon described as one of the heaviest so far.

“FEAR OF A WIDER WAR”

Residents of Marjayoun, a Lebanese town near the border, said the nighttime bombardment was among the heaviest since fighting on the border began last October.

“We were very scared, especially for my grandchildren,” said Nuha Abdo, 62. “We moved them from one room to another.”

Clothing store owner Elie Rmeih, 45, has counted more than 50 strikes.

“It was a horrifying sight, the likes of which we have not experienced since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict.

“We live in fear of a wider war, you don’t know where to go.”

CALLS FOR RESTRAIN

International mediators are doing everything they can to prevent the war in Gaza from turning into a regional conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been trying to salvage efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to release hostages, appealed for restraint by all sides.

“We do not want either side to take any escalatory action” that could jeopardize the goal of the ceasefire in Gaza, he said.

The Hamas attacks on October 7 that started the war in Gaza claimed the lives of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, which also includes hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages taken by the militants, 97 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to a tally released by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has deemed the figure credible.