Blinken warns of escalation amid rising tensions in the Middle East
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that “escalatory measures” could jeopardize a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
This story has been updated with new information.
Israel has killed a senior Hezbollah politician wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and a Marine Corps barracks that killed 300 people, the Israeli military confirmed on Friday.
The US State Department offered a $7 million reward for Hezbollah’s operational commander, Ibrahim Aqil, for information leading to his arrest.
The Israeli military said it had killed Aqil and up to 10 other senior commanders of the movement’s Radwan special forces unit. Nine people were killed and 59 wounded in the attack, Lebanese officials said.
“This elimination is intended to protect the citizens of Israel,” an Israeli military spokesman said in a brief statement.
More: Hezbollah radios explode, injuring hundreds in new explosions linked to Israel
The US State Department has identified Aqil, also known as Tahsin, as a member of Hezbollah’s “highest military body,” the Jihad Council.
In the 1980s, when various factions vied for control of Lebanon and a detachment of U.S. Marines was deployed as a peacekeeping force, Aqil was a leading figure in Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad organization. The organization claimed responsibility for the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and of the Marine Corps barracks in October of that year, which killed 241 Americans.
Aqil was also responsible for the kidnapping of American and German hostages in Lebanon, the State Department said last year. In 2019, Aqil was declared a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the department.
More: Airline bans pagers and walkie-talkies after devices explode in Lebanon
Aqil’s killing came amid a wide-ranging wave of air strikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon late Thursday and Friday, heightening fears of a serious escalation in the months-simmering conflict along the border.
The attacks followed a promise by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to retaliate against Israel. The group accuses Israel of orchestrating a two-day, brazen attack in Lebanon that blew up Hezbollah pagers and handheld radios, killing more than 30 people and seriously wounding thousands. Israel has not commented on the incident.
The Israel Defense Forces said they struck more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launch sites, as well as an ammunition depot and targets in Beirut on Thursday and Friday. Images posted on social media and by Lebanese state media showed plumes of smoke over residential areas in southern Beirut.
At least nine dead in second wave of explosions in Lebanon
Walkie-talkies and pagers belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah group exploded in homes and businesses across the country.
Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on Friday, apparently causing fires. No injuries were initially reported.
Nasrallah said on Thursday that the pager and walkie-talkie attack had crossed “all red lines” and was a “declaration of war.”
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned that the “blatant attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous precedent that could be “the sign of a larger” impending war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied with Hamas, has been firing rockets into Israeli territory almost daily since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and Israel responded with a war in Gaza. About 60,000 Israelis from northern Israel have since fled to the south to escape Hezbollah attacks.
Israel has pledged to allow its residents to return safely to northern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces on Friday lifted temporary orders restricting freedom of movement and the number of large gatherings in communities in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his country was “at the beginning of a new phase of the war.”
Hezbollah and Israel have been enemies for years and last fought a major war in 2006.
