Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border.
The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Ibrahim Aqil had been killed with other senior members of an elite Hezbollah unit in the airstrike, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death in a statement just after midnight that called him “one of its top leaders,” without providing details of how he died.
In a later statement summarising Aqil’s biography, Hezbollah said he was killed in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh in what it called a “treacherous Israeli assassination”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 14 people died in the strike and the toll was expected to climb as rescue teams worked through the night. It was not immediately known whether the toll included Aqil and other Hezbollah commanders.
Earlier, the ministry said at least 66 people were injured, nine of whom were in critical condition.
A second security source said at least six other Hezbollah commanders died when multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building’s garage. The explosion tore into the building’s lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud whistling and several consecutive blasts at the time of the strike.
