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.
Source: BBC
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