First responders work at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday.
In the latest of a series of devastating blows to the terrorist group Hezbollah, Israel killed a top commander Friday during an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon.
So far this week, Israel has blown up pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the Lebanon-based ally of Iran and launched punishing airstrikes on military targets.According to the Times of Israel, Friday’s Beirut attack killed Ibrahim Aqil, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit.
“The Israeli air strike killed Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil, its armed force’s second-in-command after Fuad Shukr,” who was killed in July by an Israeli attack.
Israeli Defense Forces representative Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said several leaders of Hezbollah’s military operations were in an underground meeting when Israel struck, according to the Times of Israel.
“They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh, while using civilians as a human shield. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians,” Hagari said.
At least 10 Hezbollah commanders were killed in addition to Aqil, Hagari said.
An IDF statement said Aqil and those with him “were among the architects of the ‘plan for the occupation of the Galilee,’ in which Hezbollah planned to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, murder and kill innocents, similar to what the Hamas terror organization carried out in the murderous massacre on Oct. 7.”
Israel said the Radwan Force has been assigned by Hezbollah to potentially invade Israel.
"The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning an ‘Oct. 7’ on the northern border for years. We reached them, and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of the citizens of the State of Israel,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said, according to the Times of Israel.
CNN reported that, due to the attack, at least two residential buildings collapsed. The CNN report said at least nine people were killed and 58 wounded.
The State Department last year issued a reward of up to $7 million for information on Aqil, who the United States believed was involved in two 1983 attacks — a bombing at the U.S. embassy that killed 63 people and one at U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans. In 1984, Hezbollah attacked an embassy annex, killing 23 people.
On Thursday, Israel carried out massive airstrikes across southern Lebanon. More than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers were attacked, with the military saying more than 1,000 launch barrels that were ready for an attack on northern Israel were destroyed, according to the Times of Israel.
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