Escalation in Beirut: Israeli Strikes Target Hezbollah Commanders, Kill 37

Rescue workers in Beirut comb through rubble after an Israeli airstrike aimed at Hezbollah commanders killed 37 people. Among the dead are high-ranking Hezbollah leaders. The strike has exacerbated cross-border conflicts with Lebanon, resulting in numerous casualties and a heightened state of alert in Israel.

Rescue workers in Beirut searched on Saturday for people still missing in rubble a day after an Israeli airstrike, targeting Hezbollah commanders, killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, according to authorities. Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said 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.

(With inputs from agencies.)