Israel says it assassinated Hezbollah rocket commander in Beirut air strike

A Hezbollah rocket commander was assassinated in an air attack on the Iran-backed group's stronghold in south Beirut on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, in another apparent heavy blow to its senior leadership.

The Israeli military statement identified Ibrahim Qubaisi, head of Hezbollah's rocket and missile division, as having been killed in the attack on the densely populated suburb.

"Over the years and during the war, he was responsible for launching missiles toward the Israeli civilians," it said. "(Qubaisi) was a significant source of knowledge in the field of missiles and had close ties to senior military leaders in Hezbollah."

At least six people were killed and 11 wounded in the strike on Tuesday afternoon on the Ghobeiry area in southern Beirut, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Hezbollah media channels did not specify any names for the dead.

In March, Israel killed Ali Abdulhassan Na'im, the unit's deputy head.

A Lebanese security source told Middle East Eye that the Israeli strike had targeted two floors in a residential building in the neighbourhood.

The group has fired over 8,000 projectiles to Israel in allegiance with Iran-backed Hamas after their October 7 attacks on Israel.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Hezbollah continued to barrage northern Israel with dozens of projectiles amid a relentless retaliation from Israel, announcing they were targeting military positions.

On Tuesday, Israel's military announced it had carried out strikes on approximately 1,500 terrorist infrastructure targets in Lebanon with 2,000 munitions over the last 24 hours.

In recent days, the death toll in Lebanon has been the highest since the last Lebanon war as the Israeli government has vowed to return the residents of the north home.

Lebanon's health ministry says 558 people have been killed in strikes since Monday, including 50 children. Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad told Al-Hadath that the country is planning to increase the capacity of hospitals but with Lebanon in the midst of a dire economic crisis, the healthcare system is already on the brink of collapse.

Lebanon's Al Hadath reported that 150 schools had been allocated to house the displaced from the country's south where at least 100,000 have already been displaced, and hundreds of thousands more expected to follow.

The crisis saw an emergency UN Security Council meeting called in a bid to stop the spiralling violence.

On Friday, commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed along with 14 other senior figures as operations took an uptick last week in a bid to regain security in Israel's north.

It followed the targeting of scores of Hezbollah operatives in a two-day operation which saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode. Israel did not admit or deny the attack which resulted in the deaths of dozens and thousands injured, including women and children.

The turnaround in the aggression from Israel after 11 months of being under almost daily bombardment from Hezbollah has led to a rise in popularity for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While 63,000 Israelis in the country's north remain displaced amid the fighting, it has led to allegations of the government forgetting the country's northern residents under fire since October 8.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Dahlia Scheindlin, a pollster and political analyst said: “Netanyahu has definitely recovered from the postwar crash."

After resisting taking on a second front amid the Gaza war, she added: “It looks like Israel is taking the initiative. It’s true everybody gets terrified about the consequences. But each time they have ultimately been far less than the Armageddon many worried about. And a lot of people come out of it thinking Netanyahu has . . . regained Israel’s footing.”