The IDF conducted a targeted strike in Beirut, the military announced on Friday afternoon. The primary target of the strike was Radwan Force commander and head of Hezbollah Operations, Ibrahim Aqil.
AFP, citing a source close to Hezbollah, reported that Aqil perished in the strike. Reuters later reported the same, citing two security sources in Lebanon.
The security sources told Reuters that other members of Hezbollah's Radwan Force were killed when the Israeli strike hit a meeting they were attending.
The Lebanese Health Ministry claimed that eight had been killed in the strike and that another 59 were wounded.
Earlier, Reuters reported that a thick cloud of smoke was seen climbing over the Lebanese capital, adding that residents of the city's southern suburbs reported hearing a blast.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meeting the strike hit was between Palestinian and Hezbollah officials.
צה"ל תקף באופן ממוקד בביירות - בלבנון מדווחים: התקיפה כוונה לבניין מגורים | תיעוד מהדאחיהhttps://t.co/2NMHeVtQ3O | @ndvori pic.twitter.com/ufxfhYex4k
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) September 20, 2024
The IDF noted that the Home Front Command's defensive guidelines for Israeli residents are currently unchanged.
"We are in a new phase of the war and continue to pursue Hezbollah," an Israeli official told Ynet after the strike. "We are preparing for a response. Everything is on the table."
The Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar claimed that more than one strike targeted an area in southern Beirut.
Lebanese media placed the site of the strike, or strikes, at the Al-Qaim neighborhood of Beirut.
Rocket sirens sound in North after strike on Aqil
Roughly an hour after the strike, drone intrusion sirens sounded across northern Israel, including the cities of Safed and Kiryat Shmona.
The strike follows massive Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel overnight on Thursday and Friday.
Throughout the rocket attacks fired by the Iranian Lebanese proxy, some 50 homes in the Israeli border community of Metulla were reportedly damaged.
Additionally, rocket falls and shrapnel sparked fires across several locations in the North.
Previously, on January 2, the IDF killed Wissam al-Tawil, known as Jawad, a key Radwan operations commander in southern Lebanon. Akil was Jawil's commander.
This is a developing story.