Hezbollah has confirmed the deaths of two senior commanders, including Radwan Force chief Ibrahim Aqil, in an Israeli airstrike on its Beirut base, an attack that highlights growing security vulnerabilities and intensifies concerns of a broader regional war.
Israel pounded southern Lebanon Saturday, raising fears of all-out war a day after an Israeli strike on Beirut left senior Hezbollah commanders among the 37 people Lebanese officials said were killed.
With heavy equipment still working at the site of the southern Beirut strike beneath high-rise buildings, Lebanon’s health ministry reported six additional dead, up from 31 earlier Saturday.
AFPTV footage showed mourners gathering in the Lebanese capital on Saturday for the funerals of three slain Hezbollah members.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati decried “horrific massacres” and said he had cancelled his trip to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, “in light of the developments linked to the Israeli aggression”.
Germany’s foreign ministry said there was “an urgent need” to defuse tensions, as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip threatens to engulf Lebanon too.
The UN has also voiced concern about “heightened escalation” and called for “maximum restraint” from all sides.
Israeli aircraft “struck thousands” of rocket launchers ready to fire from southern Lebanon, as well as “approximately 180” other, unspecified targets, a military statement said.
AFP correspondents reported intense Israeli strikes over a wide area of southern Lebanon including parts of the Nabatiyeh district and Jezzine further north.
– Basement bombed –
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it targeted at least seven military positions in northern Israel and the annexed Golan Heights with rockets.
Israel’s military said the militants had fired “about 90” rockets by late afternoon Saturday.
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