Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel claims death of Hezbollah commander as Beirut toll rises

Beirut — Israel claimed the death of a senior Hezbollah military official after a rare Israeli airstrike on Beirut as the death toll rose Saturday to at least 31 people, with dozens more wounded, shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets.

The strikes are part of a new cycle of escalation between the enemies that has raised fears of a full-out war erupting in the Middle East, particularly after two separate attacks in Lebanon in which communication devices exploded simultaneously around the country, reportedly killing 37 people and injuring more than 3,400 others.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory during the nearly 1-year-old Israel-Hamas war. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Lebanon's prime minister says he will not attend the UN General Assembly

Beirut — Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he will not go to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly because of the ongoing acts of violence with Israel.

Mikati’s office said the prime minister was scheduled to give Lebanon’s speech later this month at the United Nations but now he will discuss Lebanon’s diplomatic moves with Foreign Minster Abdallah Bouhabib who is currently in New York.

“There is no priority at the present time than stopping the massacres committed by the Israeli enemy,” Mikati was quoted as saying, a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed 37 people and wounded 68.

Mikati said he calls for drafting international laws that prevent the use of civilian technological devices for military purposes.

Mikati’s comments came days after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000 members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. Israel was blamed for the attack.

White House national security adviser calls reported death of Hezbollah commander ‘a good outcome’

Wilmington, Del. — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the reported death of Ibrahim Akil “a good outcome” and said that he planned to speak with Israeli officials later Saturday about the operation.

Akil, the main target of the Friday strike, had been wanted by the U.S. for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and in taking American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was under U.S. sanctions and in 2023, the U.S. State Department announced a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction.”

“That individual has American blood on his hands and has a rewards for justice price on his head,” Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the Quad summit that U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting in Wilmington, Delaware. “He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice.”

Sullivan added the moment was also meaningful for the American victims.

“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.”

Israeli strike on a school kills 22 people, Gaza Health Ministry says

Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip — Israeli fire killed 22 people in a strike on a school in the north of the enclave, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City injured another 30, the statement said.

Earlier Saturday, the Israeli army said it struck a Hamas “command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served” as a school.

Death toll from Israeli strike on Beirut suburb rises to 31

Beirut — The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb has risen to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said Saturday.

Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded in Friday's airstrike, of whom 15 remain in hospital, in the deadliest Israeli strike on Beirut since the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006.

Among the dead was Ibrahim Akil, a Hezbollah commander who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Forces, and about a dozen members of the militant group who were meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed.

Israel launched the rare airstrike in the densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday afternoon during the rush hour when people were returning home from work and students were leaving schools.

On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists to the site of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area around the building that was destroyed as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered bodies from under the rubble.

Weaponizing ordinary devices violates international law, United Nations rights chief says

United Nations — Weaponizing ordinary communication devices represents a new development in warfare, and targeting thousands of Lebanese people using pagers, two-way radios and electronic equipment without their knowledge is a violation of international human rights law, the United Nations human rights chief said Friday.

Volker Türk told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council there must be an independent and transparent investigation of the two attacks in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday where these devices exploded, reportedly killing 37 people and injuring more than 3,400 others.

“Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account,” he said.

Lebanon has blamed Israel for the attacks, which appeared to target Hezbollah militants but also saw many civilian casualties, including children. Hezbollah has fought many conflicts with Israel, including a war in 2006, and it has conducted near-daily strikes against Israel to support Hamas militants who attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

When reporters asked Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon about speculation Israel was behind the two explosions, he said: “We are not commenting.”

Copyright Associated Press