Israeli officials said Friday they eliminated top Hezbollah commanders in a targeted strike in Beirut, including an officer involved in planning multiple attacks against Israel.
The Israeli Air Force killed Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s operations unit and the commander of the elite special forces unit the Radwan Force, according to a release from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The IDF said other senior Radwan commanders were killed in the Lebanon attack, including those involved in planning what officials claimed was an imminent operation to infiltrate Israel and kill civilians.
IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing that Aqil and the other Radwan commanders were gathered underground “beneath a residential building in the heart of the Dahieh neighborhood, using civilians as human shields.
“They had gathered to coordinate terrorist activities against the citizens of Israel,” he said.
Aqil had headed Hezbollah’s operations unit since 2004 but served with the Lebanese militant group since the ’80s, according to the IDF. He was responsible for planning several deadly attacks on Israel.
The U.S. has a $7 million bounty on his head because he was a principle member of a Hezbollah terrorist cell that was behind a bombing that killed 63 at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 and another bombing at the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983 that killed 241 American personnel.
Hagari said on Friday that Aqil “had large amounts of blood on his hands” and “was responsible for the deaths of many innocent civilians.”
Israeli forces carried out the Friday attack in Beirut shortly after Hezbollah fired some 140 rockets toward Israel, most of which the IDF said were shot down.
The Israeli strikes on Beirut have killed at least 12 people and wounded some 60 others, according to the state-run National News Agency in Lebanon.
Israel has stepped up its attacks on Hezbollah this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands of others in Lebanon after detonating pagers and handheld radios in two separate incidents.
A Thursday strike also targeted Lebanon while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was speaking about the pager and radio attacks.
The escalation this week is sparking fears that Israel is preparing for a larger fight against Hezbollah now that much of its Gaza operations against Palestinian militant group Hamas have wound down in recent months.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. does not want a “second front in this war opened up.”
“We don’t want to see escalation,” he said. “Everything we’re doing is going to be involved in trying to amend that outcome.”
Israel is concerned about the displacement of some 80,000 residents who have fled the 11-month fighting in the north with Hezbollah, which has fired rockets almost daily in an operation tied to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a post on Friday after the strikes were announced that Israel has entered a “new phase” with Hezbollah that will ensure the return of the displaced residents.
“We will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens,” he wrote on X.
