Rescue workers in Beirut for people still missing in rubble a day after an Israeli airstrike, targeting Hezbollah commanders, killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, according to authorities.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
Israel’s army said it hit an underground gathering of Aqil and leaders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces and had almost completely dismantled its military chain of command.
The attack leveled a multi-story residential building in the crowded suburb and damaged a nursery next door, a security source said. Three children and seven women were among those killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israeli warplanes carried out the heaviest bombardment in 11 months of fighting across Lebanon’s south, and Hezbollah claimed rocket attacks on military targets in Israel’s north.
The Israeli army said it hit around 180 targets, destroying thousands of rocket launch barrels.
Friday’s strike sharply escalated the conflict and inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded.
The death toll in those attacks has risen to 39 with more than 3,000 injured.
The attacks on communications devices were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati canceled a planned trip to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
