Following the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah elite force commander Ibrahim Aqil, the Israeli military congratulated itself on its operation.
“Israeli Air Force fighter jets carried out a targeted strike on Beirut, eliminating Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s operations unit, commander of the Radwan unit,” an Israeli military spokesman said in a statement.
The military added that “about ten Hezbollah commanders” were killed in the attack.
Due to tensions on the border with Lebanon, an Israeli official announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed his planned departure to the United States.
The UN says it is “very concerned” after the Beirut strikes and urges restraint.
Return of Civilians on Both Sides of the Border
For his part, US President Joe Biden, who had not commented this week on the situation in Lebanon, said on Friday that he was “working” on the return of civilian populations on both sides of the border, displaced by hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
The US president said he wanted to “ensure that the populations of northern Israel and southern Lebanon can return home.”
He added, during a short exchange with the press on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting at the White House, “The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, all of our teams are working, with the intelligence community, to make this happen.”
When asked about the prospect of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which seems more distant by the day, he replied, “A lot of things don’t seem realistic until they’re done. We must not give up.”
According to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, senior US officials privately say they no longer believe in such an agreement, which would end hostilities in the Palestinian territory while allowing the release of hostages still held there, before the end of Joe Biden’s term in January.
Iran Denounces “Israeli Madness”
The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon has violently denounced Israel’s “madness.”
“We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli madness and the arrogance that has crossed all limits by targeting residential areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” the embassy said on X.
Hamas said on Friday that it condemned the “brutal” Israeli strike on Beirut.
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 that it was “an escalation of Zionist aggression.”
