People check the damage at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sept. 20, 2024. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Ten commanders of Hezbollah's elite al-Radwan Force, its effective leader Ibrahim Aqil and several civilians were killed on Friday afternoon in a major Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. The attack, which used four missiles, caused the subsequent collapse of two residential buildings and injured dozens of people.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike in an official statement released on X, formerly Twitter, almost immediately following the attack. A couple of hours later, army spokesperson Avichay Adraee released a statement saying that the army had "eliminated Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah's operations manager ... as well as the leader of Hezbollah's plan for the occupation of the Golan."
Later on Friday, Hezbollah issued a statement confirming the death of Ibrahim Aqil, without specifying his rank or position.
According to the Israeli army radio, this attack had been a last-minute operation, whereby military leaders chose to seize an "operational opportunity" and quickly planned the attack.
“Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his first statement following the attack. Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops "are not aiming for a broad escalation in the region," following the strike.
The official death toll from the Ministry of Health released around 10 p.m. Beirut time, sits at 14 killed, and 66 injured.
Where was the strike?
Around 3:45 p.m., Friday afternoon, the Israeli airforce targeted a building on Jamous Street in the neighborhood of al-Qaem in the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
Two security sources told Reuters that the Israeli strike hit an area close to "key Hezbollah installations in the southern suburbs of Beirut."
Barricades are being set up along the street where the strike occurred in order to keep access open for ambulances and rescue vehicles. The Lebanese Army is also on-site and a small excavator has arrived, supposedly to clear debris, according to our reporter.
(Credit: Jaimee Lee Haddad)
Casualties
The death toll from the Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut has risen to at least 14, according to the Health Ministry. The number of injured rose to 66, including nine in critical condition. Clearing operations are continuing, the ministry added.
Ten Hezbollah commanders are said to be among the dead, one of which was confirmed to be senior commander Ibrahim Aqil by a statement issued by Hezbollah later on Friday.
About an hour and a half after the initial strikes, two residential buildings at the site of the strike collapsed, compounding the initial chaos and requiring intensified rescue efforts.
Who was targeted?
The Israeli army confirmed, shortly before 6 p.m., in a statement that Ibrahim Aqil, "chief of military operations" of Hezbollah and de facto leader of the elite Radwan Forces, was killed in the strike. The Israeli army spokesperson also stated that around "ten Hezbollah commanders" were killed alongside Ibrahim Aqil, according to Reuters.
According to a security source quoted by Al Jazeera, twenty members of al-Radwan were holding a "command committee meeting" at the site of the strike. Israeli warplanes specifically targeted the underground parking garage of the building, using four missiles and causing the building to collapse to the second basement. This same security source told Al Jazeera that while Aqil's condition remains unconfirmed by the party, other Radwan commanders escaped the bombardment and were evacuated for medical treatment.
According to the German daily Tagesspiegel, Aqil had just been released from the hospital on Friday after being wounded in an attack on Hezbollah's communication devices. On Tuesday an Israeli operation simultaneously blew up thousands of pagers. On Wednesday, the attack was repeated using the party's walkie-talkies. Between the two consecutive mass detonations, which occurred across Lebanon, more than 30 people were killed and thousands were wounded, many with debilitating long-term trauma.
According to a senior researcher at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, Randa Slim, Akil had replaced Fouad Shukur, a top military commander in Hezbollah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in late July.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to visit the U.S. on Tuesday, Sept. 24, but delayed his visit to the next day for "security reasons" following this afternoon's strike, according to AFP.
No confirmation regarding the identities of the victims has been made available.
This is the third such strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the Gaza war began and Hezbollah opened a front with Israel in support of its ally, Hamas. The three assassinations, all claimed by Israel, have targeted high-ranking figures from both groups.
The first, on Jan. 2, killed Saleh al-Arouri, deputy political leader of Hamas, and claimed six other victims. The second, on July 30, killed Shukur, two children and three women.
Border fighting intensifies
This strike comes at a time when bombardments on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border have intensified over the last 24 hours. Southern Lebanon was heavily bombarded by the Israeli army on Thursday night, with more than fifty missiles launched in around twenty minutes, notably on the hills of the Jezzine district, in the Berghoz valley, and in the Hasbaya district. The Israeli army said it had targeted dozens of rocket launchers.
In response, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for more than a dozen attacks with Katyusha rockets, Falaqs and guided missiles on a series of important military positions in northern Israel, as far as the Safed region, a dozen kilometers deep, and in the Syrian Golan, 20 kilometers from the Blue Line.
At midday, the Israeli army reported that nearly 70 rockets had been fired towards Israel from Lebanon. In the morning, salvos of rockets from Hezbollah destroyed "around ten houses" in northern Israel, slightly injuring a woman and causing fires, according to the army, local authorities and emergency services quoted by Haaretz.
After the Israeli raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah claimed that it had fired salvoes of Katyusha rockets at "the main intelligence headquarters in the northern region [of Israel], which was responsible for the assassinations," adding that this was a "response to the Israeli enemy's attacks" on southern Lebanon.
Throughout the day, Hezbollah announced the death of five of its fighters. Three of them succumbed to injuries sustained on Tuesday or Wednesday, bringing the death toll from Israeli operations against Hezbollah's communications devices to 40. Two others were killed in southern Lebanon. A security source told our correspondent in the South that their bodies had been taken hostage by the Israeli army. The Israeli army had earlier announced that it had killed two Hezbollah members who were trying to plant explosives along the border.