Israel-Lebanon latest: Hamas warns Israel will ‘pay price’ after top Hezbollah commander killed in Beirut
Hamas has warned Israel will “pay a price” after a top Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, was killed in the strike on a block of apartments in the city’s southern suburbs on Friday afternoon. Lebanon said 14 were killed and 60 were injured in the attack.
It came after Hezbollah, which has been engaged in near daily skirmishes with Israel since the Gaza war began, fired 140-150 rockets into Israel earlier in the day.
Hamas, based in Gaza, described the killing of Aqil as a “crime” and “folly”. The group is part of Iran’s so called axis of resistance.
The axis comprises a group of violent proxies across Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, coordinated by Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC.
Aqil was involved in Hezbollah’s bombing of the US embassy in Beirut which killed 63 people in April 1983, according to the US State Department.
The assassination followed a series of suspected Israeli attacks earlier in the week that blew up Hezbollah’s radio and pager devices, killing 37 people and wounding at least 3,000 others.
