The Israeli military on Friday said its air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the movement’s Radwan special forces. Hezbollah has not confirmed the killing. The massive strike in the Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital killed 14 people and wounded 66, including nine in critical condition, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Read FRANCE 24’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.
Summary:
- The Israeli military said an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the movement’s Radwan special forces. Hezbollah has not confirmed the killing.
- The Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, killed 14 people and wounded 66, according to Lebanon‘s health ministry.
- Hezbollah launched around 140 rockets into northern Israel. The Israeli military said the attack came in three waves. Hezbollah said it targeted several sites across Lebanon’s southern border.
- UN human rights chief Volker Turk denounced the detonation of Hezbollah’s hand-held devices, which killed 37 people and wounded thousands in Lebanon. At an emergency UN Security Council meeting in New York, Turk called for an “independent, thorough, and transparent investigation” into the explosions.
- The Israeli military opened an investigation after videos showed its soldiers pushing what appear to be bodies off a rooftop in the occupied West Bank during a raid on Thursday in Qabatiya.
- Israeli warplanes carried out late on Thursday their heaviest aerial strikes on southern Lebanon, striking hundreds of multiple rocket launcher barrels.
- At least 41,252 Palestinians have been killed and 95,497 wounded in Israel‘s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
This concludes the FRANCE 24 liveblog on the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East for September 20, 2024. For more coverage, please click here.
Lebanon FM accuses Israel of ‘terrorism’ after communication device blasts
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Rashid Bou Habib has accused Israel of “terrorism” at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the deadly use of explosives in hand-held devices in Lebanon. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attacks, but security experts say they bear the hallmarks of an Israeli intelligence operation.
With this week’s attacks, “no one in this world is safe anymore”, Lebanon’s top diplomat said.
Hezbollah commander Aqil was injured in pager attack before his assassination in Israeli strike
Reporting from Beirut, FRANCE 24’s James André says it appears that top Hezbollah leaders were meeting in the building in southern Beirut that was hit in an Israeli strike on Friday.
The strike killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who had “just [come] out of the hospital this morning, he had been wounded by his pager”, which blew up earlier this week in attacks targeting Hezbollah’s hand-held devices, says André.
“Thousands are now coming home from a few days in hospital” after the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, he says.
UN human rights chief calls for ‘independent, thorough, and transparent investigation’ of communication device attacks
UN human rights chief Volker Turk has condemned this week’s detonation of electronic devices in Lebanon, saying the attacks violated international law and could constitute a war crime.
“International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects,” Turk told a UN Security Council emergency meeting in New York. “It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” he added.
Turk called for an “independent, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances” of the deadly explosions, which killed 37 people and wounded thousands across Lebanon this week.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights @volker_turk: “If the attacker is unable to assess the compliance of the attack with binding rules of international law, notably the likely impact on civilians, then the attack should not be carried out. International humanitarian law… pic.twitter.com/2cJVBUqshx
— Rami Ayari (@Raminho) September 20, 2024
Beirut strike death toll rises to 14
Lebanon’s health ministry says the number of people killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut has risen to 14.
Netanyahu says Israel’s goals clear, actions speak for themselves
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a short statement following the assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, declaring Israel’s goals were clear and its actions speak for themselves, Israeli media reported.
UN urges ‘maximum restraint’ after latest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah
The United Nations said Friday it was “very concerned” after Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital Beirut, and urged all parties to exercise “maximum restraint.”
“We are, of course, very concerned about the heightened escalation … including the deadly strikes we saw in Beirut today. We urge all parties to de-escalate immediately. All must exercise maximum restraint,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Hamas says Israeli strike in Beirut a ‘brutal’ escalation
Hamas has condemned the “brutal” Israeli strike on Beirut that the Israeli military said killed the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit.
A Hamas statement said it “condemns the brutal and terrorist aggression launched by the Zionist enemy’s army aircraft on the southern suburb of Beirut”, adding it was “an escalation of Zionist aggression”.
Israel’s Gallant says ‘new phase will continue’ until ‘safe return’ of residents in the north
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel will not let up following the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in Beirut.
“The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” he said in a statement in Hebrew on X.
Death toll in Beirut strike rises to 12, with 66 wounded
Lebanon’s health ministy says 12 people were killed in the Israeli strike in southern Beirut.
“The number of martyrs in the Israeli enemy strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs rose to 12 people with 66 wounded, including nine in critical condition,” the ministry said, adding rescuers were still looking through the rubble.
US still working to ensure residents along Lebanon-Israel border can ‘go back safely’, Biden says
US President Joe Biden said Friday he was working to allow people to return to their homes on the Israeli-Lebanon border, in his first comments since a wave of explosions targeting the Hezbollah members sent tensions soaring.
Biden added that it was crucial to keep pushing for a Gaza ceasefire to underpin regional peace, despite a media report that his administration had given up hope of securing a truce before he leaves office in January.
Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting in the White House, Biden told reporters he wanted to “make sure that the people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes, to go back safely”.
“And the secretary of state, the secretary of defence, our whole team are working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go,” Biden said.
Who was Ibrahim Aqil?
Ibrahim Aqil, the target of the Israeli strike in Beirut, was the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
Aqil was on the US State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” list, where he was described as “a principal member” of the organisation that “claimed the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in April 1983”.
The State Department posted a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest or conviction and said he also directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Israeli army says Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil ‘eliminated’ in Beirut strike
The Israeli military has confirmed that it has killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the movement’s Radwan special forces unit, in a strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah has not yet confirmed the killing.
Iranian embassy in Lebanon condemns Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs as ‘madness’
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon condemned Israel’s attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday as “Israeli madness that crossed all lines” by targeting residential buildings, it said in a post on X.
Lebanese hospitals overrun, people shaken by explosive devices attack
The mass attacks targeting Hezbollah electronic devices, which killed 37 people and wounded thousands, have shaken Lebanese society, says FRANCE 24’s James André, reporting from Beirut.
“People are staying at home,” reports André. “Some people told us that they wouldn’t take elevators with people they believed could be part of Hezbollah in case something might blow off in their pockets. The psychological effect of these attacks is very strong here in Beirut and in Lebanon at large.”
At least 13 Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling on homes in Gaza’s Rafah
At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling that hit two homes in Gaza’s Rafah, medical sources and the Hamas-run media office said on Friday.
US citizens ‘strongly urged’ not to travel to Lebanon
The US “strongly” urges its citizens not to travel to Lebanon, said White House national security spokesperson John Kirby.
At a press briefing in Washington, Kirby also said he was “not aware of pre-notification” regarding the Israeli strike on southern Beirut.
Kirby said the US was still involved in “intense diplomacy” to prevent an escalation of the conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.
US says footage of Israeli soldier pushing a body is ‘deeply disturbing’
The White House has described footage of an Israeli soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop in the West Bank as “deeply disturbing” and said it had demanded an explanation from Israel.
“We’ve seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it’s proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behaviour by professional soldiers,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.
Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut, security sources say
Top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, two security sources told Reuters.
One of the sources said he was killed alongside members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit as they were holding a meeting.
Beirut strike death toll rises to eight, with 59 wounded
The Lebanese health ministry’s latest toll says eight people were killed and 59 wounded in the Israeli strike in southern Beirut.
Yesterday’s key developments:
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that his group suffered an “unprecedented blow” with the attacks targeting his group’s electronic devices. But he vowed to keep up daily strikes on Israel in his first speech since this weeks attacks in Lebanon.
- Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
- It is widely believed that Israel orchestrated explosive attacks targeting hand-held electronic devices used by Hezbollah but the blasts have also killed civilians, including two children. Explosions on Tuesday targeting pagers killed 12 people and exploding walkie-talkies and other electronics on Wednesday killed 25 people, taking the total death toll to 37, according to Lebanese health ministry figures. Roughly 3,000 people were wounded over two days of attacks.
- Japanese firm Icom said that it stopped producing the model of two-way radios reportedly used in Wednesday’s blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago. The company said it last exported the devices overseas, including to the Middle East, in 2014.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, Reuters)
Issued on: Modified:
Sources from: FRANCE24.COM
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