Israel, Hezbollah trade strikes as death toll rises from Beirut attack

The death toll from a “targeted attack” by the Israeli military on a Beirut suburb Friday rose to 37, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday, as Israel and the militant group Hezbollah continued to trade strikes. The U.S. also urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country.  

Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded in the Friday attack, of whom 15 remain hospitalized. He said search and rescue operations are ongoing and the number of casualties will likely rise.

The strike — the deadliest targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war — hit a densely populated southern neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home.

The Israeli military said Saturday it killed 16 Hezbollah operatives. Among those killed were Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing. Iran-backed Hezbollah said Friday night that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths.

The United States had previously offered a “reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and or conviction” of Aqil, who it has said was a leader of Hezbollah in the 1980s, when the group claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed more than 300 people, and the U.S. Marines barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Akil’s death “a good outcome” and said he had “American blood on his hands” for the embassy attack.

“You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”

Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Saturday he will not go to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month because of the ongoing acts of violence with Israel.  

Israel, Hezbollah continue to exchange strikes; U.S. urges Americans to leave Lebanon

The Israeli military said that about 90 rockets had been fired at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday, and that it struck more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon.

It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the back-and-forth attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, announced updated safety guidelines for areas north of Haifa, including caps on gatherings of 30 people in open spaces and 300 in enclosed spaces. Work and school can continue if people can reach protected areas promptly.

In practice, the new guidelines likely mean school will be canceled in parts of the north, since students and teachers wouldn’t be able to reach shelters in the required time.

Within an hour of the announcement, Sunday classes were canceled in at least one border region in western Galilee. The cancellations include locations well outside the ordinary five-kilometer (three-mile) evacuation zone in northern Israel.

The U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory on Saturday urging citizens to depart Lebanon via commercial options while still available.  Flights were still available but at reduced capacity, the statement said, and the U.S. Embassy may not be able to assist citizens who choose to remain. The statement also urged U.S. citizens not to travel to Lebanon due to the unpredictable nature of the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. 

More details on Israel’s Beirut strike

Wahbi was described as a commander who played major roles within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in southern Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” during a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead.

The militant group members were in a meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed, Israel’s military said.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area, preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered bodies from under the rubble. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.

The Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.

The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-story building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it. The missiles destroyed the first building and cut through the basement of the second where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.

In a nearby building, shops were badly damaged including one that sold clothes and had a sign in English that read: “DRESS LIKE YOU’RE ALREADY FAMOUS.”

Escalation of attacks has Middle East on edge

The White House earlier warned both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah against “escalation of any kind” following this week’s synchronized pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah members. Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has continued firing back.

At least 37 people – including two children – were killed in the pager and walkie-talkie explosions. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.

The Lebanese health minister said Saturday hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack but CBS News learned that American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon on Tuesday. No specific details about the methods were shared.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.

Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border.

The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.