Image source, Reuters
Comment on the image, Site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 20, 2024
Last updated 22 minutes ago
The Israeli army confirmed the killing of leader Ibrahim Aqil, whom it described as “the head of Hezbollah’s operations system and the actual commander of the Radwan Force, and the leader of Hezbollah’s plan to “storm the Galilee,” in addition to the killing of at least ten leaders of the Lebanese group.
The commander of the Radwan unit and the unit’s senior commanders “were meeting underground when they were targeted and killed in an Israeli airstrike,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
“They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the suburb, using civilians as human shields. They gathered to coordinate terrorist activities against Israeli civilians,” Hagari explained at a press conference.
Hagari added that at least ten Hezbollah leaders were killed in the airstrike in Beirut, along with Aqil.
The army said in a statement published by its Arab media spokesman, Avichay Adraee, that warplanes carried out a “precise raid in the Beirut area, under intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service, and eliminated the man named Ibrahim Aqil” along with “senior leaders in the Operations Command and the Radwan Force.”
The American website Axios quoted an Israeli official as saying that all the leaders of the Radwan unit, estimated at about 20 people, were killed in the raid on the suburb, which no party has yet confirmed.
Reuters also reported, citing a security source, that Aqil was killed alongside members of the Radwan unit while they were holding a meeting.
Hezbollah has not yet officially confirmed the killing of Aqil or any of its members.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that at least 12 people were killed and 66 others were injured, as a result of the Israeli air strike that targeted a residential area in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Loud explosions were heard in the Lebanese capital as a result of what was said to be missiles launched by an Israeli drone, and a thick cloud of smoke was seen rising over the capital.
The National News Agency reported that an F-35 warplane launched a raid on an apartment in the Jamous area in the southern suburb of Beirut.
The Civil Defense Authority said in a statement that “its specialized search and rescue teams headed from several centers to the site of the collapse of the two residential buildings in the Jamous neighborhood, in the southern suburb of Beirut, as a result of the Israeli aggression.”
AFP described Ibrahim Aqil, citing a source close to Hezbollah, as the second most senior military man in Hezbollah after Fouad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs on July 30.
Image source, Reuters
An Israeli army spokesman said the army had carried out a “precision strike” in an area of Beirut.
The White House said that Washington is making intensive diplomatic efforts to prevent the escalation of the conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said he was not aware of any Israeli notification to the United States before its strikes in Beirut on Friday, adding that Americans were strongly urged not to travel to Lebanon or to leave for those already in the country.
US President Joe Biden said, “We have to make sure that the people of northern Israel and southern Lebanon are able to return to their homes and return safely.”
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon condemned, in a tweet on the X website, what it described as “Israeli madness that has crossed all limits.”
In the same context, informed sources told the Iranian Tasnim Agency that there is no truth to what the Hebrew media is saying about the killing of the deputy commander of the Quds Force, Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, in the attack on southern Beirut, after news spread about his presence at the site of the raid.
Play video, “The first moments after an Israeli raid targeted the southern suburb of Beirut”, duration 0.4300:43
Comment on the video, The first moments after an Israeli raid targeted the southern suburb of Beirut
Continuous escalation between Hezbollah and Israel
Image source, Reuters
Comment on the image, Attempts to extinguish the fire after a missile attack by Hezbollah in Lebanon in the occupied Golan Heights on September 20, 2024
Hezbollah announced that it targeted the headquarters of the air surveillance unit and operations management in the northern region in Israel, responsible for assassinations at the Mishar base, with Katyusha rockets.
Earlier, Israel said Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets from Lebanon on Friday, after Israeli air strikes on Thursday evening destroyed dozens of launch pads.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said Hezbollah fired “about 140 rockets from Lebanon within an hour,” starting at approximately 1:00 p.m. (10:00 GMT).
Hezbollah said it targeted at least six Israeli military bases with a barrage of rocket fire in response to the overnight bombardment that people in southern Lebanon described as among the most intense yet.
He explained in successive statements that he targeted a positioning point for Israeli soldiers in the Matla site with a guided missile and hit it directly, and he also bombed other military bases, including two Israeli army sites in the occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah targeted air defense missile bases in the barracks of Beria, Kela, Alika, Yoav and Yarden, in addition to the headquarters of the 210th Golan Division in Nafah Basaliyat, and the newly established headquarters of the 91st Division in Ayelet Hashahar, with Katyusha rockets, according to the statements.
The Israeli army advised residents of the north to stay near shelters.
Brigadier General Amir Avivi, head of the Israeli Defence and Security Forum, told the BBC that Lebanon is part of the threat facing Israel.
He added to the BBC that Israel had to “evacuate 60,000 Israelis from their cities and homes and send them to hotels, and Lebanon and Hezbollah destroyed the homes and cities of these people. You cannot separate the two things from each other.”
The intense clashes come as the UN Security Council prepares to discuss this week’s bombings of Hezbollah pagers and radios, which killed 37 people and wounded thousands, including civilians, over two days.