BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Askume) – Rescue workers cleared rubble in Beirut on Saturday, a day after an Israeli air strike on a Hezbollah commander in a suburb of the Lebanese capital killed at least 37 people, officials searching for missing people said.
Powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group says it includes senior leadersSixteen Hezbollah members, including Ibrahim Aqeel and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were killed in the deadliest attack in the nearly year-long conflict with Israel .
The Israeli military said it attacked an underground gathering of Aqil and the leader of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit and almost completely destroyed his military command.
Security sources said a multi-storey residential building in the crowded suburb collapsed in the attack and a neighbouring nursery was also damaged. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, the victims included three children and seven women.
Cross-border attacks continued on Saturday: Israeli warplanes carried out the heaviest bombardment of southern Lebanon in 11 months of fighting and Hezbollah claimed rocket attacks on military targets in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said it struck nearly 180 targets and destroyed thousands of rocket launchers.
Friday’s attack escalated the conflict and led to two days of attacksIn another blow to Hezbollah , pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members were blown up.
The death toll in these attacks has risen to 39 and more than 3,000 people have been injured.
The attacks on communications equipment are widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, but Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Lebanese Prime Minister Naguib Mikati has cancelled his planned trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he was concerned about rising tensions but that Israel’s killing of a senior Hezbollah leader served as justice for the group, which Washington has designated as terrorist.
“While the risk of escalation is real, we believe there is a path forward to end hostilities and find a lasting solution that allows people on both sides of the border to feel safe,” Sullivan told reporters.
Israel is preparing to fight back
Hezbollah says it will continue fighting Israel until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in its war against Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The war began on October 7 following a Hamas-led uprising in southern Israel.
US officials say that is unlikely to happen in the near future. After signing a UN resolution with Israel in 2006, Israel wants Hezbollah to call a ceasefire and withdraw its troops from the border area, regardless of the Gaza agreement.
Fearing retaliation, the Israeli military banned gatherings and raised the alert level for residents of northern communities. The alert extended south to the coastal city of Haifa, a sign that Israel believes Hezbollah’s attacks could deepen since the war with Hamas began.
On Saturday, people in southern Lebanon reported huge explosions in the night sky and ground shaking as Israel launched its latest attack.
Hezbollah-affiliated Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told reporters at the site of Friday’s attack on the outskirts of Beirut that at least 23 people were still missing. “Israel’s enemies are leading the region towards war,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said this week that Israel was starting a new phase of the war on its northern border, tweeting: “Our new phase of action will continue until our goals are achieved. Basically: the residents of the safe north return home.”
Thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border since October after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in sympathy with Palestinians in Gaza.
Although Hezbollah vowed a harsh response, an Israeli official told Askume: “This tension could push Hezbollah to agree to a diplomatic solution.”
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had launched a “large-scale attack” in southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah plans to target Israeli communities.
On Sunday morning, Hezbollah said it targeted Israel’s Ramat David airport with missiles in response to “repeated Israeli attacks in Lebanon causing civilian casualties.” The Israeli military said it intercepted the missiles. Hours later, Lebanese armed groups said they fired missiles at the airport a second time.
The communiqué from the US summit hosted by President Biden with the leaders of Japan, India and Australia stressed the need to “prevent the escalation and spread of the war in Gaza throughout the region”, but specifically mentioned Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.
The US State Department said it had updated its travel advice for Lebanon, urging American citizens not to travel to the country and urging those already in the country to leave “unless business options are available”.
The airspace north of the city of Hadera in northern Israel was closed to private flights, but international flights were not affected, the army said.
At least 70 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, bringing the death toll in the country since October to more than 740 in the worst conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since a 2006 war.
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jean-Henis Presshat, said on Friday that the attacks in densely populated areas of Beirut were “part of an extremely dangerous cycle of violence that will have devastating consequences. It must stop now.”
