Israel killed a high-ranking Hezbollah commander and several other senior members of the Lebanese group in an airstrike on Beirut, pledging to continue its military offensive until it secures the area near the Lebanese border.
According to Reuters, at least 31 people, including the senior Hezbollah commander, were killed in the capital of Lebanon. Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, died in the strike on an apartment block in the city’s southern suburbs on Friday afternoon. Lebanese authorities reported that 68 others were also injured in the attack.
On Saturday, it was confirmed that another senior commander, Ahmed Wehbi, had also been killed.
The death of Ibrahim Aqil is considered one of the most significant setbacks Israel has inflicted on Hezbollah, Lebanon’s leading political and military organization, since its formation in the early 1980s.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, speaking upon his arrival in New York for the UN General Assembly, stated that Israel “will surely not achieve its goals of escalating and spreading war” but cautioned that it “will receive a response to its crimes,” as reported by the official state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced this week that Israel is entering a new phase of its war on the northern border. He posted on X: “The actions in this new phase will continue until our goal is met: ensuring the safe return of northern residents to their homes.”
Since October, tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been evacuated. This followed Hezbollah launching rocket attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, which has lasted nearly a year.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, described the attack as “another alarming escalation.” She emphasized, “We are witnessing an extremely dangerous cycle of violence. This must stop now.”
The strike was the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a senior Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander.
Hamas warned that Israel would “pay a price” for the killing of Aqil, calling it a “crime” and “folly.” The group is part of what is referred to as Iran’s axis of resistance.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the most powerful group in the axis, has around 100,000 fighters and has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel last year.
