Israeli airstrikes target Beirut; several children among fatalities

The Israeli military has carried out airstrikes against the Lebanese capital Beirut, saying it staged a “targeted strike” against the city.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least nine people were killed and some 60 others wounded in the aggression.

According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), five children were among the fatalities.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network said a drone fired several missiles against Beirut’s heavily-populated Dahiyeh suburb. The NNA, meanwhile, said an F35 jet targeted residential areas with two strikes.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the aggression, saying, “Targeting a populated area in Beirut’s southern suburbs proves Israeli enemy has no regard for any humanitarian or legal considerations.”

Media outlets cited sources as saying that the attack targeted Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

Aqil is a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, which is responsible for directing the group’s military and security activities.

He has replaced Fuad Shukr, who was assassinated in an Israeli targeted killing attack against Beirut on July 30.

The Israeli regime has intensified its attacks on the country, mostly its southern areas, since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah has been responding with hundreds of retaliatory strikes both in support of the war-hit Gazans and in response to the Israeli escalation against Lebanon.

Earlier on Friday, the regime carried out, what was described as, the “heaviest” of its attacks to target southern Lebanon since the onset of the escalation.

Hezbollah responded by firing scores of Katyusha rockets towards at least six Israeli army headquarters and bases in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories.

It identified some of the targets as the main base of the Israeli Northern Command's missile system in Berea Barracks, the air and missile headquarters in Keila Barracks, and the 188th Armored Brigade of the 36th Division in the Aliqa Barracks.

"Some 140 rockets were fired from Lebanon within an hour starting at 1:02 pm (1002 GMT)," a spokesman for the Israeli military, meanwhile, said.

The firefight came after explosive devices planted in pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated across Lebanon earlier this week, killing 37 people and wounding thousands of others.

The regime has declined to comment on the blasts so far, but the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have held it squarely responsible for the attacks.

In an address on Thursday, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah described the atrocities as a “war crime” and “a declaration of war.”

The regime would face "tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not," he added.

The regime waged wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 only to be forced into beating humiliating retreats as a result of Hezbollah’s decisive defensive operations.

The movement has also pledged to respond with its entire prowess and strengthen in case of another Israeli war.

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