8 killed in targeting of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force commander
The commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a source close to the party confirmed to Agence France-Presse.
Illustrative map of the location of the southern suburb of Beirut
The Israeli army announced that it had launched a “precise strike in the Beirut area,” without providing any further details. The Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed that the raid left at least 8 dead and 17 wounded.
The strike came in a week that has witnessed a significant increase in the level of escalation that has been ongoing for more than 11 months between Israel andHezbollahEspecially after the bombing of communication devices belonging to party members on Tuesday and Wednesday in an operation attributed to Israel, which resulted in the killing of nearly 40 people and the wounding of about three thousand.
The source close to the party said, “The Israeli raid targeted the commander of the Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil,” and led to his death.
The source explained that Aqil, who was wanted by the United States, was “the second military man in Hezbollah after Fouad Shukr,” who was killed in an Israeli raid in the southern suburb on July 30.
The Ministry of Health reported in a statement that the Israeli raid on The suburb The southern Beirut area resulted in the death of 3 people, and 17 wounded people have been transferred to hospitals so far.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that the raid took place “near the Al-Qaim mosque.” The official National News Agency reported that it “targeted an apartment in a residential building during rush hour.”
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV broadcast live footage from the targeted site, showing ambulances transporting the wounded, extensive destruction, and damaged cars.
This is the third strike attributed to Israel targeting the southern suburb of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, since the escalation between the two parties began on October 8, the day after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
An airstrike attributed to Israel in January killed Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief, Saleh al-Arouri, along with six others.
On July 30, Israel targeted Hezbollah’s senior military commander, Fouad Shukr, in a raid in the southern suburbs.
