Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health says at least 14 people have been killed and 66 wounded in an Israeli air attack on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut.
The National News Agency (NNA) reported that five children were among the casualties from Friday’s attack on a building in Jamous Street. The agency said an F-35 jet hit the residential area with two attacks.
The Israeli military said it has carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital targeting top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the Radwan special forces unit.
Hezbollah later confirmed that Aqil had been killed in the attack.
Aqil has a $7m bounty on his head from the United States over an alleged link to the deadly bombing of a US marines barracks in Lebanon in 1983, according to the US Department of State website.
The Israeli attack marks the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut.
In July, an Israeli air strike killed Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander.
Friday’s strike hit the sprawling Dahiya district during rush hour as people were leaving work and children were heading home from school.
Local networks broadcast footage that showed a high-rise building flattened just kilometres from central Beirut. First responders combed through the rubble of at least two collapsed apartment buildings to search for missing people.
Health authorities said at least nine of the 66 wounded were in a critical condition.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack “proves again that the Israeli enemy does not value any human, legal or moral considerations”.
In a brief statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who has said this week that Israel is 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.”
For nearly a year, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting.
Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with about 170 rockets, a day after the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, promised to retaliate against Israel for two days of sabotage attacks that set off explosives in thousands of communications devices, killing at least 37 people and injuring nearly 3,000.
But Hezbollah said the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli attacks on villages and homes in southern Lebanon overnight.
Rami Khouri, a professor at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera that Israel is on “a rampage”, emboldened by the unwavering US support to “do anything they want”.
He said an escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah appears inevitable but added that he does not believe an all-out regional war to be imminent.
Khouri said Israel has long sought to defeat Hezbollah, which is better equipped than Hamas and has closer ties with Iran.
“The problem is it has tried this many times without success,” Khouri added.
Zein Basravi, reporting from Amman because Al Jazeera is banned in Israel by the government, said the army has put out warnings to the Israeli people after the attack, saying everything is on the table and to be prepared.
“There are now renewed calls for people to stay near bomb shelters,” he added.
Hezbollah hits Israel with barrage of rockets
The Lebanese group fired about 150 rockets before Israel’s attack on Beirut while about 20 were launched after the air strike.
Israel’s military said rockets came in multiple waves on Friday afternoon, targeting sites along the border with Lebanon.
The Israeli military said the barrage of rockets caused no injuries and rescue services were working to put out fires sparked by falling debris.
It listed the targeted areas as the occupied Golan Heights, the Upper Galilee region and the town of Safed.
Videos from northern Israel posted online showed rockets being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system as sirens were heard in the background.
The military said its air defences took down some of the rockets while others fell in open areas.
The incoming fire came after the Israeli military said it struck dozens of rocket launchers overnight that were ready for use against Israel.
