Beirut attack death toll rises to 37; Israel, Hezbollah trade attacks

BEIRUT —

As rescue teams continued to recover the last bodies of victims of the Israeli attack on Beirut, authorities assessed the scale of the destruction, and Israeli warplanes launched a devastating attack on southern Lebanon.

The death toll from Friday’s airstrike that hit a crowded suburban housing estate in the Lebanese capital rose to 37 on Saturday, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest attack on Beirut in decades. Firas Abiad, Lebanon’s acting health minister, told a news conference that seven women and three children were among the dead, while 68 others were injured. Many people were still missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.

Hezbollah said 16 of the dead were its agents and the rest were civilians. A day earlier, the group claimed the death of one of its most senior leaders, Ibrahim Akil, who founded the elite Radwan force. Israel said Akil and other Hezbollah leaders were targeted. Ahmad Wehbi, head of the commando group, was also killed. Akil became head of the Radwan operation after another senior commander was killed in an airstrike on Beirut almost two months ago.

In 2015, the United States offered a $7 million bounty for his role in the twin 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and a U.S. Marine barracks, which killed a total of 370 people.

Israel and Iranian-funded Hezbollah have been exchanging fire in an escalating back-and-forth since Oct. 8, a day after a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel and a fierce Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that followed. Hezbollah says its goal is to force Israel into a ceasefire with Hamas. Friday’s attack in Beirut followed an intense Hezbollah bombardment of northern Israel that was largely intercepted by Israeli defense systems, the Israeli military said.

On Saturday, journalists were allowed to visit the site of the attack in Beirut, where rescuers, shrouded in smoke, stood by a pair of excavators digging through a mountain of rubble — the ruins of an eight-story building with 16 apartments.

The explosion also ripped through a second building where Israel reported Hezbollah officials were meeting in the basement. That building was still standing, but the walls on the second floor had been blown away. One apartment, painted pink, was a clothing store, with dusty dresses still hanging on hangers. Nearby was a sign that read, “Dress Like You’re Already Famous.”

Residents and family members continued to hold vigils, waiting for news of missing loved ones. Some sat on plastic chairs in the street, alternately sobbing and saying nothing. Others gathered at the entrance to the blast site and watched as Red Cross workers brought in stretchers to remove the bodies.

“There are six dead people in our family. Three have already been released, three are still under the rubble,” said Mohammad, a 21-year-old from a nearby neighborhood who was waiting on the sidewalk. Like others being questioned, he feared harassment from other residents for speaking to Western media and asked that only his first name be used. Two of the missing are children, a 15-year-old and a 4-year-old, he added.

Further along the street, five women dressed in abayas comforted another woman who repeatedly shouted, “They are all martyrs.”

The airstrike capped a devastating week for Hezbollah. Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group’s fighters, officials and administrators exploded Tuesday and Wednesday, killing 37 people — including two children — and leaving thousands with wounds to their eyes, hands and bodies. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but it is widely believed to have organized them.

Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon on Saturday, officials said, adding that the raid was more intense than previous waves of attacks. Israel said it was attacking Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah said it had carried out strikes on several military facilities in northern Israel.

Ongoing attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border have forced some 90,000 people in southern Lebanon to flee their homes. In northern Israel, 60,000 people have been displaced. Israel’s security cabinet announced this week that stopping the attacks in the north so that residents can return to their homes in the north is now an official war goal.

Hezbollah leaders have said they will not stop their rocket campaign until a ceasefire is in place in Gaza. But Israel’s escalation has increased pressure on the group, which was founded with Iranian support in 1985 and has since grown into a sprawling military-civilian organization, not to mention one of Lebanon’s most powerful political parties.

It gained its reputation as the most effective Arab military force during Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, when Lebanese Shiite guerrillas, including Akil, waged an insurgent campaign that forced the Israeli military to withdraw in 2000.

In 2006, a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah devastated vast swaths of Lebanon, but the militants remained unaffected. The memory of that devastation remains front and center in the minds of Lebanese, and many fear an all-out war would devastate a country already struggling with an economic crisis for years.

Hezbollah has appeared unexpectedly vulnerable to Israeli attacks, with little response that might placate its domestic base. In a speech Thursday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said retaliation was coming but did not elaborate.

Many of her supporters believe the time has come for all-out war.

“Sayyid cares about our well-being, but we are ready,” said Kayed, a resident of the targeted neighborhood who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid harassment for speaking to Western media. He referred to Nasrallah by his honorific title.

“I pray to Allah that the strike will make Sayyid lose his patience.”