IDF reports 15 Hezbollah members killed after Israeli strike
During the Israeli strike on the suburbs of Beirut, along with Hezbollah special operations commander Ibrahim Aqil, 15 other members of the movement were killed, including senior commanders of the Radwan special unit. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on September 21.
"On Friday, Israeli Air Force aircraft operated by the Intelligence Directorate carried out a precision strike on the target and killed Ibrahim Akil. <...> In addition to Aqil, 15 other Hezbollah terrorists, including senior commanders of the Radwan force, were eliminated in the strike," the IDF said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
The IDF added that Aqil and the other eliminated commanders were responsible for planning and implementing multiple terrorist operations against Israel, including preparations for a possible invasion of the north.
Earlier in the day, the IDF destroyed some 180 sites and thousands of rocket launchers in southern Lebanon. On the same day, it was reported that the death toll in an Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb had risen to 37. It was also noted that the rubble at the site of the Dahiyeh tragedy was still being cleared.
Israel's strike on the Lebanese capital was targeted - the IDF sought to eliminate Hezbollah Shiite commander Ibrahim Aqil, who is a member of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement's top military body, the Jihad Council. The movement confirmed Akil's death. According to the Jewish state's army, other senior Hezbollah leaders who were part of the Radwan force, a special unit within the Shiite group's ranks, were killed along with him. Two residential buildings collapsed in the city after the strike.
The IDF said on Sept. 19 that its military carried out a series of attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, hitting 100 launchers and facilities of the group. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said before that the Jewish state was shifting forces to the northern front because of the start of a new phase of the war.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas subjected Israel's territory to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, as well as invaded border areas in the south of the country and took hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes
