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Israel focused a senior Hizbollah commander on Friday in an air strike on the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut, escalating hostilities between the 2 sides and fuelling fears of a full-blown warfare.
The goal was Hizbollah’s operations commander, Ibrahim Aqil, based on individuals accustomed to the matter, though it’s not but recognized if he was within the constructing or among the many eight individuals Lebanese authorities stated have been killed within the strike.
Lebanon’s state-run information company reported that an F-35 warplane launched 4 missiles into the Jamous space of Dahiyeh, putting a residential constructing.
It capped every week of lethal mass detonations of the Iran-backed militant group’s communications gadgets that killed 37 individuals and injured 1000’s extra. Hizbollah has blamed the assaults on Israel, which has in a roundabout way commented.
The Israeli strike on Friday is the second concentrating on a senior Hizbollah commander in southern Beirut for the reason that battle erupted final October. A July strike on a residential constructing in Dahiyeh killed Fuad Shukr, Hizbollah’s prime navy commander.
Aqil, like Shukr, was one of many group’s earliest founding members and sat on Hizbollah’s Jihad Council, the group’s highest navy physique, based on 4 individuals accustomed to the group’s operations. Aqil, who headed the group’s particular operations, has a $7mn bounty on his head over his alleged ties to the lethal 1983 US marine barracks bombing in Beirut.
Hizbollah didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark relating to Aqil. However the strike dealt one other humiliating blow for Lebanon’s dominant political and navy power, which was nonetheless reeling from the mass detonations earlier this week.
At the least 59 individuals have been injured in Friday’s strike on Beirut, Lebanon’s ministry of well being stated. That quantity was more likely to climb because the strike happened throughout rush hour in a densely packed neighbourhood.
Lebanon’s civil defence authorities stated rescue efforts have been ongoing, with individuals nonetheless being pulled from the rubble after two residential buildings collapsed.
Footage circulating on social media confirmed burnt-out automobiles and enormous piles of rubble the place a constructing would have stood, indicating a considerable strike. Broadcasting stay from the scene, Hizbollah’s Al-Manar TV confirmed a constructing with its entrance facade utterly blown off.
The strike in Beirut got here amid intensifying salvos between Israeli forces and Hizbollah, which have been exchanging cross-border hearth since Hizbollah began launching rockets at Israel in help of Hamas on October 8, the day after the Palestinian militant group’s assault on Israel.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant declared this week that the warfare between the 2 foes had entered a “new section”, including on Thursday night that Hizbollah “pays an growing value”.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli navy stated that its jets struck round 100 rocket launchers in Lebanon that have been attributable to hearth at Israel “within the rapid future”. It was certainly one of Israel’s heaviest rounds of strikes on Lebanon for the reason that begin of the warfare.
On Friday, Hizbollah fired round greater than 140 rockets at Israeli-controlled territory, based on the Israeli navy, sparking fires in a number of areas. There have been no rapid studies of casualties.
Following the strike on Beirut, Hizbollah stated it had launched extra rocket salvos concentrating on what it stated have been navy installations, together with one navy intelligence headquarters it stated was “liable for assassinations”.
US nationwide safety council spokesman John Kirby stated the US nonetheless doesn’t see a wider warfare as “inevitable”.
“We don’t wish to see escalation, we don’t wish to see a second entrance on this warfare opened up,” Kirby stated. “Every little thing we’re doing goes to be to attempt to stop that consequence.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who condemned the “felony” assaults on Lebanon this week, stated he had requested an emergency assembly of the UN Safety Council. “All of the communications I obtained yesterday from senior worldwide officers confirmed that the Israeli enemy crossed pink traces,” he stated.
Mikati stated he would head to the US for diplomatic talks on the sidelines of the UN Common Meeting “to say that there’s nonetheless house out there for a diplomatic resolution”.
Extra reporting by Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in Beirut and Felicia Schwartz in Washington
