Israeli Military Targets Senior Hezbollah Official Amid Escalating Violence

The Israeli military targeted senior Hezbollah military official Ibrahim Akil in a Beirut airstrike, killing at least 8 people and wounding 59 others. While it's unclear if Akil was killed, the attack has intensified fears of escalating violence as Hezbollah continues retaliatory rocket fire. Casualties continue to rise in Gaza.

An Israeli official confirmed that the Israeli military targeted Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official, in Friday's airstrike on Beirut.

It wasn't immediately clear if Akil was killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs that killed at least 8 people and wounded 59 others, according to Lebanese health officials. The Israeli official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a behind the scenes security matter.

An official close to the Hezbollah militant group, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to brief the media, confirmed to The Associated Press that Akil was supposed to be in the building when it was targeted Friday. The official couldn't confirm if Akil was killed.

Akil has served as the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force and Jihad Council, the group's highest military body. The US State Department has sanctioned Akil for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and that he had directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there during the 1980s.

The strike in Dahiyeh, just kilometres from downtown Beirut, hit during rush hour, as people were leaving work and students headed home from school.

The escalation came as the region awaited the revenge promised by the militant group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for this week's mass bombing attack on pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.

Israel's rare strike on the Beirut suburbs came after Hezbollah pounded Israel with 140 rockets, which the Israeli military said came in three waves targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.

Following the attacks, the Israeli military said that it had struck areas across southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, but didn't provide details of damage.

Hezbollah said that its attacks had targeted several sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defense bases as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armored brigade they said they'd struck for the first time.

The Israeli military said that 120 missiles were launched at areas of the Golan Heights, Safed and the Upper Galilee, some of which were intercepted. Fire crews were working to extinguish blazes caused by pieces of debris that fell to the ground in several areas, the military said.

The military didn't say whether any missiles had hit targets or caused any casualties.

Another 20 missiles were shot at the areas of Meron and Netua, and most fell in open areas, the military said, adding that no injuries were reported.

Hezbollah said that the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes in southern Lebanon, not two days of attacks widely blamed on Israel that set off explosives in thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.

On Thursday, Israel said its military had struck "hundreds of rocket launcher barrels" in southern Lebanon, saying that they "were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory." The army also ordered residents in parts of the Golan Heights and northern Israel to avoid public gatherings, minimize movements and stay close to shelters in anticipation of the rocket fire that eventually came Friday.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war's opening salvo, but Friday's rocket barrages were heavier than normal.

Nasrallah on Thursday vowed to keep up daily strikes on Israel despite this week's deadly sabotage of its members' communication devices, which he described as a "severe blow." At least 20 were killed in the attacks and thousands were wounded when pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The sophisticated attacks have heightened fears that the cross-border exchanges of fire will escalate into all-out war. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attacks.

In recent days, Israel has moved a powerful fighting force up to the northern border, officials have escalated their rhetoric, and the country's security Cabinet has designated the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel an official war goal.

Fighting in Gaza has slowed, but casualties continue to rise.

Overnight, Palestinian authorities said that 15 people were killed in multiple Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Those included six people, including an unknown number of children, in an airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City that hit a family home, Gaza's Civil Defence said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.

Israel maintains that it only targets militants, and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.

Gaza's Health Ministry says that more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas' Oct 7 attack. The ministry doesn't differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count, but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.

Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

More than 95,000 people have also been wounded in Gaza since Oct 7, the Health Ministry said.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million.

(With inputs from agencies.)