Hezbollah commanders among 37 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
At least 37 people killed in Lebanon after Israel's 'targeted strike' on Friday
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has confirmed the deaths of two of its top military commanders after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Israeli officials had earlier claimed to have killed Ibrahim Akil, who had served as the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force and Jihad Council - the group's highest military body.
Hezbollah confirmed Akil's death in a statement, describing him as a "great jihadist leader".
They also confirmed that among the dead was senior commander Ahmad Wehbe.
Lebanon's Health Minister, Firass Abiad, said that the death toll from the airstrike has risen to 37, including seven women and three children. Previously the death toll stood at 31.
Abiad said that 68 people were also wounded, 15 of whom remain in hospital.
Several people, including two top Hezbollah commanders, have been killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut, as ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy and Senior International Correspondent John Irvine report
Akil had been sanctioned by the US State Department for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing of the American embassy in Beirut.
He had also been sanctioned by the US for directing the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the 1980s.
Explosions could be heard from Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday afternoon, with Al-Mayadeen TV reporting that a drone fired several missiles towards the heavily populated area, known as Dahiyeh.
The Israeli strike hit during rush hour, as people headed home from work and children left school.
It marks the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital in months, and came after Hezbollah struck Israel with 140 missiles, the Israeli military and the militant group said.
The missiles came in three waves on Friday afternoon and targeted sites along the border with Lebanon, according to Israel's military.
Hezbollah claimed it hit the headquarters of an Israeli armoured brigade and multiple air defence bases.
The IDF is now drawing up and approving a battle plan for Lebanon as Israeli hospitals are preparing for a mass-casualty scenario.
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It comes after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pledged that Israel will "face severe and fair punishment", after it was accused of carrying out a series of deadly electronic device explosions across Lebanon.
Nasrallah, in a televised statement, said that what happened had crossed "all red lines".
In Gaza, Israeli fire killed 22 people in a strike on a school in the north of the enclave, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
The strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City injured another 30, the statement said.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army said it struck a Hamas “command and control centre, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served” as a school.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Middle East as tensions continue to grow between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lammy made the comments on Thursday evening after a meeting with Western counterparts, saying the issue is "of huge concern at this time".
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Speaking to reporters, Lammy said: "All of us are monitoring it very closely and we are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement, so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel, and, indeed, Lebanese can return to their homes.
"That's why tonight I'm calling for an immediate ceasefire from both sides, so that we can get to that settlement, that political settlement that's required."
The latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 2023 when Hamas killed more than 1,100 people in southern Israel and abducted over 250 others.
Since then, 41,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
International efforts to mediate a ceasefire have repeatedly stalled as each side accuses each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.
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