BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire Saturday as rescue teams in Beirut searched through the rubble of an apartment building that was flattened by an Israeli airstrike that killed more than 100 people. killed at least 37 peopleincluding one of the militant group’s top leaders as well as women and children.
The Israeli government prepared for an expected increase in Hezbollah rocket attacks by setting new limits on the size of gatherings and other restrictions in the north of the country near Israel’s border with Lebanon, leading schools in some communities to cancel classes on Sunday.
Israel said Friday’s airstrike destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut as Hezbollah operatives were meeting in the basement. Ibrahim Akila senior Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit, the Radwan Force. Ahmed Wahbi, a senior commander in the group’s military wing, was also killed, the Israeli military said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack, which came days after devastating coordinated attacks on Hezbollah that used explosive pagers and walkie-talkies, disrupted the group’s chain of command while eliminating Akil, who he said was responsible for the Israeli deaths and who had been on the U.S. wanted list for years.
“This is our commitment to the dead and their loved ones. This is our commitment to the people of the north. And it is a clear message to all those who seek to harm us,” he wrote on X.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike on the building. He added that 68 others were wounded, including 15 hospitalized.
It was the deadliest attack in Beirut since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and the death toll could rise, with 23 people still missing, a government official said.
Hezbollah confirms more than a dozen members killed
Akil, the primary target, had been wanted for years by the United States for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. Last year, the U.S. State Department announced a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to “his identification, location, arrest and/or conviction.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Akil’s death a “good outcome” and said he had “American blood on his hands” for the embassy attack.
“You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But for a lot of families and individuals, this situation continues every day.”
Wahbi has been described as a commander who played a major role in Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli prison in southern Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” during a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli soldiers dead.
Hezbollah announced overnight that 15 of its members had been killed by Israeli forces, without specifying how or where they died. Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Saturday that 16 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in Friday’s attack.
Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket fire continue
It was unclear whether anyone was killed or injured in the attacks between Israel and Hezbollah on Saturday. The Israeli military confirmed that about 90 rockets were fired toward northern Israel and that Israel struck more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon during the day.
Anticipating an increase in rocket attacks, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli defense spokesman, announced updated security guidelines for areas north of Haifa, including limiting gatherings to 30 people in open spaces and 300 in enclosed spaces. Work and school can continue if people can reach protected areas in a timely manner. But because students and teachers in some areas could not reach shelters in the required time, Sunday classes were canceled in at least two border areas within an hour of the announcement.
Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said that halting Hezbollah attacks in the north of the country, which would allow displaced residents to return home, was now an official war aim, as Israel considers a broader military operation in Lebanon that could trigger a full-scale conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to its northern border.
Hezbollah said it would stop its strikes only when a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas in Gaza,
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire regularly since the start of the Hamas offensive. October 7th Assault The attacks on southern Israel triggered the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have mostly hit areas of northern Israel that had been evacuated and less populated areas of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah bombings preceded Israeli strike
Friday’s strike took place a few hours after Hezbollah The Israeli military launched one of its most intense bombardments on northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, targeting mainly Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.
The militant group said its latest wave of rocket salvos was in response to Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. However, it came days after Massive explosions of Hezbollah pagers And walkie talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children, and injured around 3,000 others.
Abiad, Lebanon’s health minister, said Saturday that hospitals across the country were full of wounded people.
The pager and walkie-talkie attacks have been widely attributed to Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. They mark a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
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Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery and Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem, White House correspondent Zeke Miller in Wilmington, Delaware, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
