Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed at least 37, including the commander of a Hezbollah special forces unit

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging strikes since October.

Anadolu/ Getty Images

• An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb killed at least 37 people.
• Two Hezbollah commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, are said to have died in the strike.
• It comes amid growing tensions in the Middle East.

An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday killed at least 37 people, including three children, Lebanon's health ministry said Saturday.

Two Hezbollah commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, were among 16 of the group's members to have died in the strike, the group has said, per Reuters.

RAdm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said the strike had come as Aqil and other commanders "were gathered underground under a residential building."

The IDF said Aqil was the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan special forces unit.

The IDF added later that further strikes on southern Lebanon had "dismantled" around 180 Hezbollah targets and thousands of launcher barrels.

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry, said that the international community should condemn Friday's strike "in the strongest terms" while also reiterating Iran's support for Lebanon.

Reacting to the news on X, Iran's foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, added that almost a year into the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "achieved none of his aims" and was "desperate" to drag the region into war.

Fears have been mounting in recent months over the potential for an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Tensions between the two sides have been on the rise since October when Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel in what it says has been a show of solidarity with Palestinians affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The latest strikes come after a suspected covert Israeli operation that caused a number of electronic devices across Lebanon to detonate, killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the attacks.

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