Ambulances carry injured people after a targeted Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday. Israeli Defense Forces released a statement saying it "conducted a targeted strike." Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Israeli jets carried out a strike Friday targeting a senior Hezbollah military commander in Beirut's southern suburbs, the main stronghold of the Iran-backed group, killing and wounding several people and causing considerable damage, according to witnesses and media reports.
The targeted Hezbollah commander was identified as Ibrahim Aqil, who reportedly was killed in the strike. Hezbollah has not confirmed the assassination of Aqil, who heads the Radwan unit made up of the party's elite fighters.
On April 18, 2023, the U.S. State Department announced a $7 million reward for any information leading to the identification and arrest of Aqil, known as Tahsin and serving on Hezbollah's highest military body, the Jihad Council.
He was a principal member of the Islamic Jihad Organization that claimed the April 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people, and the October 1983 U.S. Marine barracks, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.
He also was involved during the 1980s in the kidnapping and holding of U.S. and German hostages in Lebanon.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said eight people were killed and 59 others injured in the air strike, which led to the collapse of two residential buildings. Eight of the wounded were listed in critical condition.
A big, black smoke billowed over the area, while ambulances with wailing sirens rushed to the scene, the witnesses said.
Israeli Army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed that the Army conducted a targeted strike in Beirut, according to Israeli Ynet website.
Hezbollah retaliated with launching a new barrage of missiles targeting military and intelligence bases in northern Israel.
The strike came a day after Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said Israel crossed "all the red lines" by detonating thousands of communication devices used by his group's members earlier this week, killing 35 people, including two children, and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
Nasrallah vowed to punish Israel for the pager and walkie-talkie explosions that hit various Lebanese regions.
This was the second such strike since the July 30 assassination of Hezbollah senior military commander, Fouad Shukr.
Earlier, amid fears of an expanding war in the Middle East after mass detonations of bombs surreptitiously planted in Hezbollah communication devices, Israel continued its assault on the Iran-backed militia overnight.
Israeli warplanes, under the direction of Israel Defense Force intelligence and Northern Command, struck around 100 rocket launchers and other Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, the Israeli Air Force and IDF said Friday.
The IDF described the attack as intent on degrading Hezbollah's capabilities and infrastructure.
"For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them and used civilians as human shields -- having turned southern Lebanon into a war zone," it said on social media.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the recent attacks involving communications devices, and its secretary-general, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned in a televised address on Thursday that Israel had crossed "all the red lines."
Meanwhile, international organizations, such as the United Nations, have called for call and for both sides to exercise maximum restraint to prevent the war from exploding throughout the Middle East.
Though Israel has yet to comment directly, Israeli officials declared this week a new objective of the war: the return of tens of thousands of Israelis to their Northern Israel homes near the Lebanese border.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging attacks across the southern Lebanese border since Israel's war with Hamas, another Iran-backed group, started nearly a year ago.
About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from northern Israeli cities close to the Lebanese border because of the constant military strikes, and on Tuesday, the day of the pager attack, Netanyahu's offices said in a statement that his Security Cabinet updated its objectives of the war to include returning the evacuated to their homes.
"We are at the start of a new phase in the war," Yoav Gallant, Israel's minister of defense, said Wednesday.
"We are allocating resources and forces to the northern arena and our mission is clear: ensuring the safe return of Israel's northern communities to their homes. To do so, the security situation must be changed."
