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At least 37 people were killed by an Israeli strike in a densely populated area of Beirut on Friday, Lebanese authorities now say.
Israel says two Hezbollah leaders were among the dead, including Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, and Ahmed Wahbi, a senior commander.
According to Lebanon, women and children were killed in the strike, which also left 68 people injured, Lebanon said.
Aqil was involved in Hezbollah’s bombing of the US embassy in Beirut which killed 63 people in April 1983, according to the US State Department.
On Saturday in Gaza, dozens of people including children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
At least 22 people, including 13 children and six women, were killed in the attack while using the building as a shelter, the ministry added.
The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command centre embedded in the building previously used as a school.
Footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room. Witnesses said children were in the playground.
In pictures: ‘At least 37 killed’ in missile strike targeting suburb of Beirut
Tara Cobham22 September 2024 00:30
Israel’s strike on Beirut killed 37, Lebanon says
Rescue workers in Beirut searched on Saturday for people still missing in rubble after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah commanders the previous day killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, according to authorities.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said that 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
Israel’s army said it hit an underground gathering of Aqil and leaders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, and had almost completely dismantled its military chain of command.
The attack levelled a multi-story residential building in the crowded suburb and damaged a nursery next door, a security source said. Three children and seven women were among those killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Cross-border strikes continued on Saturday: Israeli warplanes carried out the heaviest bombardment in 11 months of fighting across Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah claimed rocket attacks on military targets in Israel’s north.
The Israeli army said it hit around 180 targets, destroying thousands of rocket launch barrels.
Friday’s strike sharply escalated the conflict and inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks this week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded.
Tara Cobham21 September 2024 23:42
From booby-trapped walkie-talkies to exploding pagers – could our phones and cars be next?
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 22:30
What has boobytrapping Hezbollah’s pagers actually achieved?
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 21:30
How the plot to explode Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies unfolded
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 20:30
The Hezbollah pager attacks prove that Israel has no strategy for peace
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 19:30
What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 18:30
What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 17:30
Iran calls Israeli attacks ‘shameless’ as it unveils new ballistic missile
Iran’s supreme leader has said that Israel is committing “shamless crimes” against children, not combatants.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was speaking on state TV from Tehran, where he told a group of envoys from Muslim countries that Israel is not “fighting men, but ordinary people”.
“Unable to hurt the real fighters in Palestine, they are venting their malicious anger on small children, on hospital patients, and on schools filled with young children,” he said.
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 16:30
Pictured: School shelter hit in Gaza by Israeli airstrike
Alexander Butler21 September 2024 15:30
Read More: Israel-Lebanon live: ‘37 killed’ by Israeli strike which killed Hezbollah leader
