Israel said it had killed a top Hezbollah military official in its airstrike on Beirut, while Lebanon said 12 people were killed and more than 40 injured.
By Nook Media and Mr adil
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday, the Israeli army said. It was the deadliest such attack on Lebanon's capital in years, with Lebanese health authorities reporting at least 12 people killed and dozens more wounded in the attack.
The chief military spokesman for Israel, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said it killed Ibrahim Akil, commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, and 10 other Hezbollah operatives in the strike on Beirut's southern Dahiya district.
Hezbollah didn't comment immediately on the claim of killing Akil, following a weekend whirlwind of tit-for-tat bombardments between the enemies, which heightened fears of a war in the Middle East going full-blown.
A Hezbollah official confirmed that Akil was in the building at the time of the attack but did not offer further details. He has been on Hezbollah's Jihad Council, which is an operation and policy-making military body, and has already earned himself a place on the U.S. terrorism sanctions list because in 1983 he took part in two attacks: against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed over 300 people, and against the U.S. Marine Corps barracks, killing over 200 people.
Lebanese networks broadcast footage showing first responders combing through the rubble of two flattened apartment buildings in the Jamous area, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations.
Friday's airstrike — apparently the deadliest such attack on a neighborhood of Beirut since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody, monthlong war in 2006 — hit during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children heading home from school.
The attack in Lebanon is to protect Israel, Hagari said at a news conference following the strike, describing Akil as one of Hezbollah militants responsible for the group's regular rocket fire into Israel.
Hours earlier on Friday, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets as the region awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over this week's mass bombing attack on pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah has said the heavier-than-normal bombardment was a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, not revenge for the explosions of Hezbollah pagers on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 20 people and wounded thousands in sophisticated attacks widely attributed to Israel.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied involvement in those attacks, which marked a significant escalation in the last 11 months of boiling conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire with routine frequency since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel set off the Israeli military's devastating offensive in Gaza. But earlier cross-border attacks have largely targeted sparsely populated areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.
The last time Israel struck Beirut was in a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Speaking to journalists, Hagari described Shukr and Akil as two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Accused by Mr. Dahlan of planning a wave of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians that spanned more than two decades, plus masterminding a never-realized plot to invade northern Israel similar to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks,.
Last year, the State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to Akil's identification, location, arrest, or conviction. It said he also orchestrated the seizure of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the 1980s.
Hezbollah said it was preparing to carry out two more attacks against northern Israel after declaring Sunday it was launching its first attack since the Israeli airstrike on Beirut that killed five people.
It was the latest in a string of rocket barrages claimed by Hezbollah this week targeting Israeli military sites. Israel has reported limited damage -- including fires sparked by fallen shards of shrapnel -- and no casualties.
Israel remains on edge, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to keep up strikes on Israel despite this week's deadly sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices -- what he called a "severe blow" to the group.
In recent days, Israel has also stationed a heavy fighting force along its northern border, officials have ratcheted up their rhetoric, and the country's security Cabinet has declared the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel an official war objective. The Israeli army has ordered residents in parts of the Golan Heights and northern Israel to avoid public gatherings, minimize movements and stay close to shelters.
Meanwhile, Gaza fighting has slowed down temporarily, but casualties have continued to pile up.
Through the night, Palestinian officials reported that 15 people were killed in several attacks by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Those killed six, including an unknown number of children, in an airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City that hit a family home, Gaza's Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.
Israel maintains it only aims at militants, but blames Hamas and other militant groups for placing civilians in harm's way by operating out of residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas' attack on Oct. 7. The ministry doesn't make distinctions between fighters and civilians in its count but says that more than half of those slain were women and children.
The war has caused vast destruction, and up to 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million population have been displaced.
___ Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Fatma Khaled in Cairo and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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