An Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, Lebanese health officials said. It was the first such Israeli attack on Lebanon’s capital in months and came shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets.
The Israeli military said its airstrike killed Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said that its attacks had targeted several Israeli military sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defense bases as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armored brigade they said they’d struck for the first time.
In Gaza, Palestinian authorities said 15 people were killed overnight in Israeli attacks.
Israel maintains it targets only militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military had no immediate comment.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Here’s the latest:
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry has raised the death toll from Friday’s Israeli airstrike on Beirut to 12. It says 66 more people were wounded, nine of them with serious injuries.
The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital flattened two apartment buildings.
The Israeli military said the strike killed Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday said that his administration must keep working at trying to win a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas as tensions rise along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The president’s comments came hours after Israel carried out what it called targeted strikes near Beirut. The action is raising concerns that the nearly yearlong Gaza war could spread into a larger regional war.
“We are continuing to try to do what we tried in the beginning to make sure that both the people of northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to get back to their homes and go back safely,” Biden said in an exchange with reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Asked if getting an agreement may be slipping out of reach in the final months of his presidency, Biden said he still had hope and that his national security team continues to work.
“If I ever said it wasn’t realistic, we might as well leave,” Biden said. “A lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done. We have to keep at it.”
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military announced that its airstrike Friday on a neighborhood of Beirut killed Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.
The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 60 others, according to Lebanese health officials, and flattened two apartment buildings. The Israeli military also claimed that its strike killed other “top operatives” of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, without elaborating.
A Hezbollah official has confirmed that Akil was supposed to be in the building in the Dahiya district that was hit.
Akil has served on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council, and has been sanctioned by the United States for being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.
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