Israel’s attacks on Lebanon updates: Hezbollah confirms commander killed

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For more on Israel’s attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed at least 14 people, including senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, read our story here.

For what you need to know about Aqil, check out our profile here.

We are going to bring our live coverage to an end soon. Here’s a summary of today’s main events:

• Hezbollah confirms its top commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in an Israeli attack on a building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
• At least 14 people were killed and 66 others injured in the strikes on the Dahiyeh area, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.
• Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says “even in Dahiyeh in Beirut – we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens”.
• United Nations officials and diplomats have urged de-escalation, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning that the region is on the “brink of catastrophe”.

The Palestinian group has described the killing of the senior Hezbollah commander as a “crime” that Israel will pay a price for.

Badr Abdelatty says, “All efforts must be exerted to prevent further escalation in the region and restore stability in Lebanon”.

Abdelatty made the comments after a meeting with Amos Hochstein, a US envoy who has been tasked with de-escalating tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.

FM Abdelatty meets with the U.S. Envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein. All efforts must be exerted to prevent further escalation in the region and restore stability in Lebanon. @amoshochstein pic.twitter.com/imJBhrJHxB

— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) September 20, 2024

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon, has said Hezbollah typically reorganises rapidly when its leaders are killed.

He pointed to what happened after the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli attack on Beirut in July.

“We saw them coping quickly and regaining the initiative,” he said.

But Hashem noted that finding an experienced commander to step in following Aqil’s killing could take time.

The group has carried on with its usual cross-border military operations against Israel amid the escalation in Beirut.

Hezbollah said it targeted air defence and intelligence bases as well as an Israeli tank throughout the day with rockets, drones and mortar shells.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that two Israeli air strikes were carried out on the border villages of Yaroun and Hanine.

The agency also reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets over the city of Tyre and its surrounding villages in south Lebanon.

Iran’s representative to the UN has condemned what it called “barbaric” attacks in Lebanon and Syria this week, saying that it holds Israel fully responsible.

Saeid Iravani said during today’s UN Security Council meeting that the attacks constitute “crimes against humanity” and Israel “bears full responsibility” for them.

Iravani also said an attack that injured the country’s ambassador to Lebanon was a “blatant violation” of diplomatic norms and international law.

Aqil, a senior leader in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, had a $7m reward on his head from the US Department of State before he was killed.

Aqil joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and was responsible for the group’s attacks outside of Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.

Like most senior Hezbollah military officials, Aqil has been a shadowy figure, making no public appearances or statements.

According to US officials, Aqil – also known as Tahsin – served on Hezbollah’s highest military body.

For more about Aqil, read our explainer here.

The group has heaped praise on its slain commander, without discussing how it will respond to the assassination.

Here’s what Hezbollah’s statement said:

“Today the senior commander Ibrahim Aqil [Haj Abdulqader] has joined the procession of martyrs after a blessed life full of struggle, work, wounds, sacrifices, challenges, accomplishments and victories. It was fitting for him to attain this divine honour.

“Jerusalem was always in his heart and in his mind and in his thoughts day and night. Jerusalem was the obsession of his soul, and praying in its mosques was his dream.

“With honour and pride, the Islamic resistance today offers one of its leaders as a martyr on the road to Jerusalem and pledges to his pure soul to remain loyal to his goals and hopes until victory.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has said that Israel will use “any means” to return displaced Israeli civilians to their homes near the border with Lebanon.

Speaking at the UN Security Council, Danon noted that Israel formally included their return in its Gaza war objectives.

“We will do whatever it takes to achieve this,” he said, adding that the Israeli government would “not allow Hezbollah’s terror to dictate the future of our nation”.

“If Hezbollah does not retreat from our border and back to the north of the Litani River through diplomatic efforts, Israel will be left with no choice but to use any means within our rights to defend our citizens, and enable the evacuees of the north to return to their homes.”

At the opening of the emergency Security Council briefing, I responded to the escalation between Israel and Lebanon. I clarified that if a diplomatic solution is not found, Israel will be forced to take all necessary measures to protect its citizens and allow Israel’s residents… pic.twitter.com/pIkzJlcyx0

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) September 20, 2024

I think it’s important to point out the rising tension and concern here at the United Nations.

This is the fourth meeting this week alone by the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East.

[There was] a major, two-day meeting in the General Assembly, as well, in which a resolution was passed.

The constant drumbeat from UN officials and diplomats – even the United States, which has been resistant from using its full power to stop Israel in its pursuit of this war [in Gaza] – is [that of] calling for de-escalation and expressing concern about this war spreading.

Abdallah Bou Habib has said that Israel must be held accountable for “unfathomable” attacks that killed Lebanese civilians.

Here’s more of what the Lebanese foreign minister told the UN Security Council:

• “No one in this world is safe any more in the aftermath of the electronic attacks which were carried out recently in Lebanon. Those were unfathomable attacks. They have led to the injury of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly.”
• “If this terrorist attack is not condemned by your council — and if you do not name the perpetrator, if you do not deter the perpetrator, condemn it, and compel it to stop such aggressions — the credibility of this council, of international law, and of human rights law, are at stake.”
• “Accepting what happened amounts to opening a Pandora’s box.”

Al-Nujaba Movement says the attack in Beirut is another US-backed Israeli violation that will only fuel the push to confront “this reckless enemy”.

The group and other Iran-linked Iraqi factions have been operating under a coalition – dubbed the Islamic Resistance – and carrying out attacks against US bases in the region in a campaign that they say aims to support Gaza.

“We in the Islamic Resistance assert to our Lebanese siblings, especially the men of resistance in Hezbollah, that we will respond strongly and without hesitation to avenge the martyrs and eradicate this malicious, cancerous tumour from the body of the Arab and Muslim nation,” the group said in a statement.

Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), has said the mission is “very concerned” by tensions that have been rising over several days.

“After 11 months of daily shelling … the potential for a wider conflict is really around the corner. And no one can afford a wider conflict,” Tenenti told Al Jazeera.

“We are trying to use all our efforts at the moment to try to de-escalate the tensions.”

If Israel and Hezbollah enter into a wider conflict, Tenenti warned that it would be “a regional conflict” with “catastrophic consequences”.

“And as I said earlier, no one can afford that. And that’s important for the parties to understand the fact that there would be no winners in a regional conflict.”