Death toll from Israeli strike on Beirut rises to 37

[Pelican Press 0]

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****** toll from ******** strike on Beirut rises to 37

At least 37 people were ******* in an ******** air strike on a Beirut suburb, including three children and seven women, the Lebanese health ministry says.

Hezbollah said those ******* in the deadliest strike in a year of conflict between Hezbollah and ******* included 16 of its members, and that senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another top commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among the *****.

The ******** army, in posts on X, said Friday’s strike hit an underground gathering of Aqil and senior commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, and had “almost completely dismantled” Hezbollah’s military chain of command.

Heavy cross-border strikes continued on Saturday, with ******** warplanes carrying some of its heaviest bombardment in 11 months of fighting across Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah claiming rocket attacks on military targets in *******’s north.

Friday’s strike sharply escalated the conflict between ******* and the Iran-backed group, and inflicted another ***** on Hezbollah after two days of attacks this week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded.

The total ****** toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3000 were injured.

The attacks on communications devices were widely believed to have been carried out by *******, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Hezbollah-aligned transport minister Ali Hamieh told reporters at the scene of Friday’s strike that at least 23 people were still missing.

“The ******** ****** is taking the region to war,” he said.

The ministry had dispatched vehicles and equipment to help rescuers dig through the collapsed buildings.

“We’ve been taking out women and children from under the rubble,” he said.

Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s ****** in a statement just after midnight that called him “one of its top leaders”.

It said overnight that 15 other members were also *******, including senior commander Wahbi, who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan forces during the Gaza war until early 2024.

The Friday afternoon strike targeted a building next door to a nursery, which suffered from the impact of the strike, a security source said on Friday.

A second security source said multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building’s garage. The ********** tore into the building’s lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside.

In a brief statement on Friday evening carried by ******** media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said *******’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week ******* was launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X: “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes on both sides of the *******-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began ******* rockets at ******* in October in sympathy with Palestinians in the nearly year-old ******** war against ****** in Gaza.

*******’s military said on Saturday that airspace in northern ******* – from the city of Hadera north – was closed to private flights, but that the measure did not affect international flights.

“These restrictions were set in place to maintain the security of flights and in accordance with operational activity,” the military said.

With at least 70 people ******* in Lebanon this week, the ****** toll in the country since October has surpassed 740. The current conflict between ******* and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought an all-out war in 2006.

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said on Friday the strike in a densely populated area of Beirut’s southern suburbs was part of “an extremely dangerous cycle of ********* with devastating consequences. This must stop now.”

Friday’s strike marked the second time in less than two months that ******* has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an ******** air strike ******* Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander.

While the current conflict has largely been contained to areas at or near the frontier, this week’s escalation has heightened concerns that it could widen and further intensify.

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