Israel announced it had killed the commander of Hezbollah's elite unit in a strike Friday that Lebanese officials said left 12 dead and dozens wounded in the movement's Beirut stronghold.

- Iran embassy in Lebanon condemns 'Israeli madness'-

Israel's defense minister said on Friday that the country's "enemies" would find no refuge in the southern suburb of Beirut where an air strike killed a Hezbollah commander.

"Our enemies have no place of refuge -- not even the Dahieh in Beirut," Yoav Gallant said on X, referring to the area where Israel said Ibrahim Akil, commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit, was killed along with "about 10" other top militants.

Ibrahim Akil, who Israel said it killed in an air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs Friday, headed Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit and had been on a U.S. sanctions list for nearly a decade.

The United States described Akil as a "key leader" in the group and offered a $7 million reward for information about the man who became the second top Hezbollah commander killed in nearly a year of clashes between the militant group and Israel over the Gaza war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will delay his departure to New York by a day due to the security situation in the country's north, an official in his office told AFP on Friday.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed his visit to the U.S. by one day in light of the security situation in the north of Israel," the official said, asking not to be named. He said that Netanyahu will now travel on September 25, instead of September 24 as previously planned.

Israel announced it had killed the commander of Hezbollah's elite unit in a strike Friday that Lebanese officials said left 14 dead and dozens wounded in the movement's Beirut stronghold.

Ibrahim Akil, who was also wanted by the United States for involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, headed the Iran-backed militant group's elite Radwan Force.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned Israel that it will face a "crushing response from the resistance front" after thousands of communication devices used by Hezbollah in Lebanon exploded.

Israel has not commented on the attacks that killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 over two days but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.

U.S. President Joe Biden believes there can still be a diplomatic resolution to escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah following a series of pager and walkie-talkie bombings and amid Israeli threats to escalate the conflict, his spokeswoman said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that a "diplomatic path exists" in Lebanon, where fears of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel spiked after deadly explosions of hand-held devices.

War is "not inevitable" and "nothing, no regional adventure, no private interest, no loyalty to any cause merits triggering a conflict in Lebanon," Macron said in a video to the Lebanese people posted on social media.

Israel’s military killed two Hezbollah members who were planting explosives along the border over the weekend, Israel’s military and an official with a Lebanese group said.

The official with a Lebanese group said the two members of Hezbollah were killed Sunday and their bodies were taken by Israeli troops because they were too close to the fence along the tense frontier. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Hezbollah said it launched Katyusha rockets at a north Israel intelligence base it blamed for targeted killings, claiming its first attack after Israel launched a deadly strike on the group's south Beirut stronghold, a day after the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for the device blasts carnage.

The Iran-backed group said its fighters had targeted "the main intelligence headquarters in the northern region responsible for assassinations... with volleys of Katyusha rockets", adding the attack was "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks" on south Lebanon.