Rare Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills Hezbollah commander andothers

[Pelican Press 0]

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Rare ******** airstrike in Beirut ****** Hezbollah commander andothers

******* launched a rare airstrike that ******* a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike on Lebanon’s capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 people ******* and dozens more wounded in the *******.

The ******** military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district ******* Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, as well as 10 other Hezbollah operatives.

“We will continue pursuing our enemies in order to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” said ******** Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the ******** strike that targeted Akil as part of “a new phase of war.”

Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil’s ******. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as “a great jihadist leader” and said he had “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of ******, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories.”

Akil served on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the ****** Council. He was sanctioned by the ******* States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 ******** that ******* more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.

Last year, the U.S. State Department posted a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest or conviction, citing his role in the embassy ******** and in the taking of ********* and ******* hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.

The strike came as a new cycle of escalation between the enemies raised fears of a full-out war erupting in the Middle East.

Hours before the ******** strike, Hezbollah pounded northern ******* with 140 rockets as the region awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over this week’s mass explosions of pagers belonging to members of the Shiite militant group.

The ******** military did not provide the identities of the other Hezbollah commanders allegedly ******* in its strike on the crowded neighborhood just kilometers from downtown Beirut.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 14 people were ******* and 66 others were wounded in the *******, which leveled the apartment building where the ******** army claimed Akil had been meeting with other militants in the basement. Nine of the wounded were in serious condition, the ministry added.

Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing first responders sifting through the rubble of a collapsed high-rise in the Jamous area in the heart of Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations.

The rescue operation continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the *******, as first responders wrestled to remove the rubble to reach the basement of the building where apparently many of the bodies were located.

Friday’s airstrike — the deadliest such ******* on a neighborhood of Beirut since ******* and Hezbollah fought a *******, monthlong war in 2006 — hit during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children heading home from school.

At Beirut’s St. Therese Hospital near the scene of the airstrike, crowds flocked to donate blood for those wounded in the *******.

“We are all together in this situation, so it’s my obligation,” said Hussein Harake, who lined up to donate blood.

From *******, Gallant said he briefed senior military officials on the strike and vowed ******* would press on against Hezbollah “until we achieve our goal, ensuring the safe return of *******’s northern communities to their homes.”

The strike came after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern ******* in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting ******** military sites. *******’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets. The few that got through sparked small fires but caused little damage and no ******** casualties.

Hezbollah described its latest wave of rocket salvos as a response to past ******** strikes on southern Lebanon — not as revenge for the mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that ******* at least 37 people – including two children – and wounded 2,900 others in attacks widely attributed to *******.

******* has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week’s sophisticated attacks, which signaled a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict along the *******-Lebanon border.

******* and Hezbollah have traded ***** regularly since ******’ Oct. 7 ******** on southern ******* ignited the ******** military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern ******* that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.

The last time ******* hit Beirut was in a July airstrike that ******* senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur.

“The ******* in Lebanon is to protect *******,” Hagari said at a news conference following Friday’s strike, describing both Shukr and Akil as the two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.

Hagari also accused Akil of plotting a series of attacks against ******** soldiers and civilians dating back decades, including a never-realized plan to invade northern ******* in a similar way to the ******-led Oct. 7 attacks.

After Friday’s ******** airstrike, Hezbollah announced attacks on northern *******, two of which it said targeted an intelligence base from where it claimed ******* directed assassinations.

******* ******** on edge, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to keep up strikes on ******* despite the humiliating “*****” he said Hezbollah suffered in the sabotage of its communication devices.

“We are in a tense *******,” Hagari told reporters Friday. “We are prepared on high alert both offensively and defensively.”

In recent days, ******* has sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border, designated as an official war goal the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern ******* and ordered citizens near *******’s border with Lebanon to stay close to ***** shelters. Hezbollah has maintained that it will only halt its ***** when there is a cease-***** in Gaza.

******, which continues to ****** ******* in Gaza, condemned the ******** strike targeting Akil as a “new ******” and “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

Even as the world’s attention turns to the surge in *******-Hezbollah tensions, ************ casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip continued to mount.

************ health authorities early Friday reported that 15 people, including children, were ******* in ******** strikes that targeted a family home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. *******’s campaign in Gaza has already ******* at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians.

In response to a request for comment on the latest Gaza strikes, the ******** military insisted on Friday that it took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm” and accused ****** of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.

*******’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip — launched in response to ****** ******** 1,200 people and taking 250 ******** in southern ******* on Oct. 7 — has wreaked vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

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#Rare #******** #airstrike #Beirut #****** #Hezbollah #commander #andothers

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