Israel-Lebanon latest: ‘At least 37 killed’ in Beirut by Israeli strike which left Hezbollah leader dead
It comes as 22, including children, were reportedly killed in a strike on a Gaza school
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At least 37 people were killed by an Israeli strike in a densely populated area of Beirut on Friday, Lebanese authorities now say.
Israel says two Hezbollah leaders were among the dead, including Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, and Ahmed Wahbi, a senior commander.
According to Lebanon, women and children were killed in the strike, which also left 68 people injured, Lebanon said.
Aqil was involved in Hezbollah’s bombing of the US embassy in Beirut which killed 63 people in April 1983, according to the US State Department.
On Saturday in Gaza, dozens of people including children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
At least 22 people, including 13 children and six women, were killed in the attack while using the building as a shelter, the ministry added.
The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command centre embedded in the building previously used as a school.
Footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room. Witnesses said children were in the playground.
Top Hezbollah commander killed in Beirut airstrike, Israeli military says – fuelling fear of all-out war
The Lebanon explosions raise a question: Deep into the smartphone era, who is still using pagers?
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David Lammy considers plans to evacuate Britons from Lebanon as Israel conflict escalates
What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Death toll from Beirut airstrike rises to 14
The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital killed at least 14 people and wounded nearly 60 others, according to Lebanese health officials, and flattened two apartment buildings.
The Israeli military also claimed that its strike killed other “top operatives” of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, without elaborating.
A Hezbollah official has confirmed that Akil was supposed to be in the building in the Dahiya district that was hit.
Israel claim Hezbollah commanders had been planning attack on northern border
The 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.
Ibrahim Aqil had a $7 million bounty on his head from the United States over his link to the deadly bombing of Marines in Lebanon in 1983, according to the U.S. State Department website.
The Israeli military said Aqil had been head of Hezbollah operations since 2004 and was responsible for a plan to launch a raid on northern Israel, similar to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that triggered the war in Gaza.
“The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning their October 7th on the northern border for years,” Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said.
“We reached them, and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of Israel’s citizens.”
Lebanon strikes could ‘dwarf’ devastation seen so far, UN official says
A senior United Nations official told the Security Council on Friday that further violence between Israel and Iran-aligned groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon risked igniting a far more damaging conflict.
“We risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far,” UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the 15-member council, which met about attacks this week on Hezbollah.
“It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy,” she said. “I also strongly urge Member States with influence over the parties to leverage it now.”
Ceasefire deal hopes dampened by attacks in Lebanon
Since August, senior US officials including secretary of state Antony Blinken have raised expectations for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. It has previously been said that a deal was 90 per cent agreed and they were working to iron out the few but challenging disagreements.
But shifting demands from both Israel and Hamas have repeatedly spiked efforts to reach a deal to end the nearly year-long bloodshed and have been a source of deep frustration for Biden administration officials.
The odds of a quick resolution appeared even smaller after an unprecedented attack on Hezbollah this week in which pagers and radios used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.
On Friday, Israel killed a top commander with the Iran-aligned Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“We don’t appear to be particularly close at the moment,” a senior administration official said.
What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged intense rounds of rocket fire and airstrikes after the Lebanese militant group was targeted by an attack which caused their communication devices to explode.
In an unprecedented attack which killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000 more, pagers used by the group were simultaneously detonated on Tuesday, sparking widespread panic in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Founded in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war, Hezbollah’s initial objective was ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. It achieved that in 2000.
Shiite Muslim Hezbollah is part of a collection of Iranian-backed factions and governments known as the Axis of Resistance. It was the first group that Iran backed and used as a way to export its brand of political Islamism.
Read the full explainer here:
What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Israel has declared a ‘new phase of war’ on its border with Lebanon
Lebanese people terrified of using their phones and laptops following deadly pager attacks
Lebanese residents are living in fear that their electronic devices could implode days after a suspected Israeli attack turned pagers and walkie-talkies into bombs.
Around 37 people were killed and thousands more wounded on Tuesday and Wednesday in the attacks which targeted Hezbollah militants but also led to deaths of children, doctors and civilians.
Residents are now terrified of their devices and fear there will be a third wave of attacks.
Ziad Tabbara, 61, who runs a boutique menswear shop told The Times: “Now we’re afraid of things that are not meant to scare us, like phones and laptops.”
Read the full article here:
Lebanese people terrified to use phones and laptops following deadly pager attacks
Civilians in Beirut are living in fear that their laptops and mobile phones could be the next devices to be used as bombs
Netanyahu says ‘our actions speak for themselves’
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued a short statement following an airstrike on Beirut that has killed a senior Hezbollah leader.
On social media, he said: “Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.”
White House says video of IDF soldiers pushing bodies off rooftop is ‘disturbing’
The White House has said the a video of Israeli soliders apparently pushing four lifeless bodies from a rooftop in the West Bank is “deeply disturbing”.
The video emerged following a raid, with the behaviour from IDF soliders in the town of Qabatiya seen as the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Human rights groups say the videos provide fresh evidence of how Israel routinely uses excessive force against Palestinians. The Israeli military said in a statement that the incident would be reviewed and investigated, and “does not coincide with (its) values and the expectations from (its) soldiers.”
A White House spokesperson called it “deeply disturbing,” and said Israel has pledged to investigate.
Emergency workers rushed to find the missing after Beirut strike
After the strike in Beirut, local broadcasters showed groups of people gathered near the site, and reported they were searching for at least 10 people who had been in the vicinity and were still missing, most of them children.
Drones were still flying over Beirut’s southern suburb hours after the strike, which is believed to have been targeting a gathering of Hezbollah commanders.
“We are not afraid, but we want a solution. We cannot continue with the country like this,” said Alain Feghali, a resident of Beirut said. “War? I don’t know if it started or not, but nothing is reassuring. It is clear that the two sides will not stop.”
Hezbollah did not make any official statements on the strike, and did not immediately confirm that Aqil was targeted or killed.
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said Friday’s 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.”
UN spokesperson say they are ‘very concerned’ about Beirut airstrike
The UN said it was “very concerned” after Israeli airstrikes hit the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens.
A statement from Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general António Guterres, reads: “We are, of course, very concerned about the heightened escalation... including the deadly strikes we saw in Beirut today.
“We urge all parties to deescalate immediately. All must exercise maximum restraint.”
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