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Hezbollah said that another one of its commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday, a day after it announced the killing of Ibrahim Aqil, a top figure in the Lebanese movement during the same attack.
In a statement on Saturday it said that Ahmed Wahbi, a commander who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh.
Hamas mourned Aqil, who was killed in the Israeli airstrike, describing it as a "crime" and "folly" that Israel will pay the price for.
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In a later statement summarising Aqil's biography, Hezbollah said he was killed in what it called a "treacherous Israeli assassination".
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 14 people died in the strike and the toll was expected to climb as rescue teams worked through the night. It was not immediately known whether the toll included Aqil and other Hezbollah commanders.
Earlier, the ministry said at least 66 people were injured, nine of whom were in critical condition.
A second security source said at least six other Hezbollah commanders died when multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building's garage. The explosion tore into the building's lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud whistling and several consecutive blasts at the time of the strike.
In a brief statement carried by Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who 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."
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel, which last fought an all-out war against Hezbollah 18 years ago, has said it will use force if necessary to ensure its citizens can return to northern Israel.
The Israeli military described Aqil as the acting commander of the Radwan special forces unit, and said it had killed him along with around 10 other senior commanders as they met. Aqil sat on Hezbollah's top military council, sources in Lebanon told Reuters.
The strike inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
The United Nations on Friday denounced the detonation of hand-held communication devices used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon this week, saying the attack violated international law and could constitute a war crime.
"International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects," the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council, adding that it "is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians."
Local broadcasters showed groups of people gathered near the site, and reported they were searching for missing people, most of them children. Drones were still flying over Beirut's southern suburbs hours after the strike.
The strike marked the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, the group's top military commander
The Israeli military said Aqil had been head of Hezbollah operations since 2004 and was responsible for a plan to launch a raid on northern Israel.
"The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning their ‘October 7th’ on the northern border for years," Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said.
"We reached them, and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of Israel's citizens."
The Israeli military reported warning sirens in northern Israel following the Beirut strike, and Israeli media reported heavy rocket fire there.
Hezbollah said it twice fired Katyusha rockets at what it described as the main intelligence headquarters in northern Israel "which is responsible for assassinations".
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said Friday's strike in a densely populated area of Beirut's southern suburbs was part of "an extremely dangerous cycle of violence with devastating consequences. This must stop now."
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any Israeli notification to the United States before the Beirut strike, adding Americans were strongly urged not to travel to Lebanon, or to leave if they were there.
However he added that, "war is not inevitable ... and we're going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it."
The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited by the Gaza war, has intensified significantly this week.
On Thursday night, the Israeli military carried out its most intensive airstrikes in southern Lebanon since the conflict erupted almost a year ago.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought a war in 2006. Tens of thousands of people have had to leave homes on both sides of the border.
While the conflict has largely been contained to areas at or near the frontier, this week's escalation has heightened concerns that it could widen and further intensify.
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