Israel ramps up attacks on Hezbollah, says top commander killed

Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday, days after a series of attacks stoked fears the conflict between the two may spiral out of control.

The Israel Defense Forces said the airstrike on Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit and a member of the group’s top military council. Aqil was also a principal member of the Islamic Jihad Organization that claimed the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the Marine barracks, according to the U.S. government.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said around 10 of Radwan’s commanders were also killed. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 12 people were killed and 66 were wounded in the strike. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has not confirmed the killing of Aqil.

The strike came days after pagers and walkie-talkies used mainly by Hezbollah members exploded, killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands of others. The group said that operation was a severe and unprecedented security blow, blamed Israel, and vowed to retaliate. Israel hasn’t commented on those events, but says the focus of its military operations is shifting from the war against Hamas in Gaza to the northern border with Lebanon.

If confirmed, Aqil would be the second high-ranking Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel in the last two months. An Israeli strike killed the group’s chief of staff, Fouad Shukr, in July, hours before Iran said Israel killed Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel hasn’t commented on Haniyeh’s killing.

Television footage showed debris covering a narrow street in a residential area of Beirut, lined with several charred vehicles and motorcycles. Lebanon’s civil defense unit said two buildings in the Jamous neighborhood collapsed and medics were searching for survivors under the rubble.

Ramping Up

This week’s events as well as an Israeli commando raid in Syria against a missile facility earlier this month are meant to degrade Hezbollah’s resources and chip away at its capabilities. Since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago and Hezbollah joined the fight, Israel has struck dozens of arms depots in Lebanon, killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and displaced thousands of residents and supporters.

Hezbollah has responded with calibrated attacks against Israel. Leader Hassan Nasrallah says the group does not seek an all-out war with the Jewish state but is ready for it.

According to Israeli assessments, Hezbollah’s pre-war stockpile included around 50,000 rockets with ranges of up to 125 kilometers (78 miles), hundreds of precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles, and around 1,000 explosives-laden drones and guided anti-tank missiles. Hezbollah personnel numbered in the tens of thousands before the war with about 5,000 to 6,000 being elite forces.

Earlier Friday, Israel said it struck almost 100 rocket launchers and other sites in Lebanon, and Hezbollah fired at several positions in northern Israel, in one of the past year’s heaviest exchanges of fire.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week said the war had entered a “new phase,” and deterring attacks by Hezbollah was becoming more of a priority.

The previous week, Israel also added a new item to its official list of war objectives: returning the thousands of Israelis who were evacuated from northern towns near the border with Lebanon when the Gaza war began. The Israeli army has diverted some soldiers from the Gaza Strip to the Israel-Lebanon border. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are considered terrorist entities by the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin postponed a planned visit to Israel, Axios reported, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’ll postpone by 24 hours his planned departure to New York for next week’s United Nations General Assembly summit. Airlines including Air France and Lufthansa have suspended flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv until late Friday.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams.)