Hezbollah was reeling Saturday after an Israeli airstrike killed two of its top officials and dozens of others, heightening fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.
As the United Nations called for diplomacy, the two sides exchanged a fresh barrage of fire on Saturday and Iran, which backs the militant and political group, said the region was “on the brink of war.”
The attack followed the coordinated bombing of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, a significant escalation after months of deadly cross-border exchanges in parallel with Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military carried out a strike on a school in the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, which it said targeted Hamas militants, but local officials said children sheltering children were among the 22 people killed.
As authorities around the world investigated the source of the explosive devices, Hungarian intelligence services questioned the CEO of a company linked to pagers, while a walkie-talkie manufacturer in Japan distanced itself from the blasts.
Tensions rise after Beirut explosion kills 31
Hezbollah said Ibrahim Akil, who helped establish the militant and political group’s elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, who headed Hezbollah’s central training unit, were killed in Friday’s strike on a densely populated suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
At least 31 people were killed in total, including three children, and 68 injured, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said at a press conference on Saturday.
Hezbollah, which Washington has designated a terrorist organization, said 19 of its fighters were killed, including Akil and Wahbi. It did not specify whether all of them were killed in the attack, but the number of Hezbollah fighters killed since the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas stands at 499. Israel confirmed that it killed at least 16 Hezbollah fighters in the attack.
The United States had offered a reward of up to $7 million for information on Akil, who it said was “a leading member” of the group that claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
Sirens sounded in northern Israel early Saturday as Hezbollah said it fired artillery shells and rockets across the border, while the Israeli military said it was targeting sites used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
At a military parade in Tehran, the Islamic Republic showcased its growing arsenal, including what it said was a new self-detonating drone.
Addressing a gathering of officials and ambassadors, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Israel for what he called “the crimes they are committing without shame” against children.
A senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the region was on the brink of war.
Calling the Israeli airstrike a “new major crime,” Mohsen Rezaee raised the possibility of a widening of the conflict, saying that “it is possible that after Lebanon, they will extend their crimes to Iraq, Syria or, with an even greater error, to Iran,” according to a report by Tasnim, a semi-official news agency considered close to the IRGC.
