Jerusalem/Beirut. Hezbollah fired more than 140 rockets on northern Israel, in response to which the Israeli army carried out ‘targeted attacks’ in Beirut, Lebanon, in which the militant organization’s senior military officer Ibrahim Aqeel was killed. However, Aqeel’s death was not immediately confirmed by Hezbollah. According to Lebanese health officials, at least nine people were killed in this attack and about 60 others were injured. Two residential buildings were razed to the ground in the attack. The Israeli army also claimed that other “top officials” of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force were also killed in its attack, although it did not give any details about this.
A Hezbollah official confirmed that Aqeel was present when the building in the Dahiya district was targeted. The official was not authorized to brief the media. Aqeel has served as head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force and the Jihad Council, the group’s highest military body. The US has imposed sanctions on Hezbollah for its involvement in two terrorist attacks on the US embassy and a US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 that killed more than 300 people. Hezbollah fired 140 rockets into northern Israel on Friday morning. The attack came a day after the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to avenge Israel’s massive bombing.
The Israeli military and the militant group gave this information. Israeli forces have carried out devastating offensives in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, leading to heightened tensions and regular cross-border attacks between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Friday’s attack took place at rush hour in the Dahiya district, when people were leaving work and children were on their way home from school. Local networks broadcast footage showing a high-rise building completely demolished in the Jamous area, a few kilometers from downtown Beirut, where Hezbollah has influence.
An Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said the target of the attack was Ibrahim Aqeel, the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Shortly after the Israeli air strike on Beirut, Hezbollah announced two more attacks on northern Israel, including one that targeted an intelligence base it claimed Israel directed the killings from. Israel did not immediately comment on the latest attacks.
The Israeli military said it was hit by three rounds of rockets on Friday afternoon, targeting sites along the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had targeted several locations along the border with Katyusha rockets, including several air defense bases and the headquarters of an Israeli armored brigade. It said this was the first time these targets had been attacked. The Israeli military said 120 missiles were fired at the Golan Heights, Safed and Upper Galilee regions, some of which were destroyed in mid-air. The military said firefighters were trying to extinguish fires caused by pieces of debris that fell to the ground in several areas. The military did not say whether any missiles hit targets or whether there were any casualties. The army said 20 missiles were fired at the Meron and Netua regions, most of which fell in open areas. The army said there were no reports of casualties.
