31 dead, 68 hurt as Hezbollah says 2 commanders and 14 fighters killed in Dahieh strike
Hezbollah said Saturday that a second senior commander was among 16 fighters killed in an Israeli air strike on its Beirut stronghold the previous day, highlighting the scale of the blow to its military leadership.
Israel said Friday's strike on the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital killed the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Akil, and several other commanders.
Caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad said on Saturday the death toll has risen to 31, including seven women and three children. Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded of whom 15 remain in hospital, in the deadliest Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs since the summer 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Coming hot on the heels of sabotage attacks on communications devices this week that killed 37 people in Hezbollah strongholds, the strike raised new questions about the Iran-backed group's security arrangements and dealt an apparent heavy blow to its fighters' morale.
Hezbollah named the second commander as Ahmad Mahmoud Wehbi, saying he had headed the group's operations against Israel from the onset of the Gaza war in October until the start of this year.
Confirming the death of Akil, who was wanted by the United States for involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Hezbollah hailed him as "one of its great leaders."
Friday's strike left a massive crater and gutted the lower floors of a high-rise building.
It was the second Israeli strike on the Hezbollah military leadership since the start of the Gaza war. An Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in July killed Fouad Shukur, a top operations chief for the group.
It also followed sabotage attacks on pagers and two-way radios used by Hezbollah on Tuesday and Wednesday, which killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000 others, raising fears of a wider war.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the world body was "very concerned about the heightened escalation" and called for "maximum restraint" from all sides.
The Israeli military said it conducted a "targeted strike" against Akil, which a source close to Hezbollah said killed a total of 16 Radwan Force members.
The source said Akil was "at a meeting with commanders" when he was killed.
The United States had offered a $7 million reward for information on Akil, describing him as a "principal member" of an organization that claimed the 1983 embassy bombing, which killed 63 people.
- Spearhead -
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have battled each other along the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas militants triggered the war in Gaza with their October 7 attack.
The focus of Israel's firepower for nearly a year has been on Gaza, but with Hamas much weakened, that focus has now moved to Israel's northern border.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel's "enemies" would find no refuge, not even in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said after the strike that Israel was "not aiming for a broad escalation in the region."
But Hamas called it a "brutal and terrorist aggression" and an "escalation."
Iran's foreign ministry accused Israel of seeking to "broaden the geography of the war."
Months of near-daily cross-border exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens in Israel, forcing tens of thousands on both sides to flee their homes.
The latest blow to Hezbollah came after thousands of Hezbollah operatives' pagers and walkie-talkies exploded over two days, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that Israel would face retribution for those blasts.
Before Friday's Beirut strike, Israel said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon following air attacks that allegedly destroyed dozens of the militant group's launchers.
Speaking to troops on Wednesday, Gallant said "Hezbollah will pay an increasing price" as Israel tries to "ensure the safe return" of its citizens to border areas.
"We are at the start of a new phase in the war," he said.
Akil's Radwan Force spearheaded Hezbollah's ground operations, and Israel has repeatedly demanded through international mediators that its fighters be pushed back from the border.
- 'Fear of wider war' -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed by a day his scheduled departure to the United States, where he is due to address the U.N. General Assembly.
On Friday the U..N's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council the attack on Hezbollah communications devices violated international law and could constitute a war crime.
The pagers and walkie-talkies exploded as their users were shopping in supermarkets, walking on streets and attending funerals, plunging Lebanon into panic.
"I am appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks," said Turk, adding that it "is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians."
International mediators, including the United States, have been scrambling to stop the Gaza war from becoming an all-out regional conflict.
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press
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