Top Hezbollah commanders killed in Beirut air strike, Israel says

Israel said an air strike it launched in south Beirut on Friday killed top Hezbollah commanders in a meeting of the Iran-aligned group's elite Radwan unit, escalating a week of devastating attacks in Lebanon.

"Ibrahim Aqil and the Radwan commanders who were eliminated today were planning Hezbollah’s 'Conquer the Galilee' attack plan, in which Hezbollah intended to infiltrate Israeli communities and kidnap and murder innocent civilians in a similar manner to the October 7 Massacre," it said in a post on X.

Hezbollah has yet to confirm the identities of those killed in the attack.

Aqil, Hezbollah's operational commander, was among the founding members of the group and was wanted by the United States for his alleged role in bombings of the US embassy in Beirut and a nearby marine corps barracks in 1983 which killed around 300 people.

At least 10 people were killed and nearly 60 others injured in the Israeli attack which leveled a building in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced.

The United States had maintained a bounty of up to $7 million on Aqil, whom the State Department said was a key member of Hezbollah’s predecessor organization Islamic Jihad.

Aqil also directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s, US authorities alleged.

His killing comes shortly after two days of suspected Israeli attacks on the communication devices of Hezbollah fighters beginning on Tuesday which killed over three dozen people on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Iran condemned the Friday air strike as an unlawful attack on civilians.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli madness and arrogance that crossed all boundaries by targeting residential areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of dozens, including children and women," the Iranian embassy in Beirut said in a post on X.

Hamas in a statement condemned Israel's air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut as “an escalation of Zionist aggression".

An Israeli air strike on the same area on July 30 killed Hezbollah's top military commander Fuad Shukr, who was also wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombings and was viewed by Israel as a key deputy of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.