BEIRUT: A strike on Hezbollah's stronghold in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Friday killed twelve people and wounded dozens of others, with a source close to the movement saying a top military leader was dead.
The Israeli military said it had conducted a "targeted strike", while the Lebanese health ministry said the attack had killed 12 people and wounded 59 more.
The Israeli military said its air strike in Beirut eliminated Ibrahim Aqil, the chief of Hezbollah's elite unit, also killed about 10 commanders of the Lebanese militant group.
"We targeted those responsible for the daily rocket fire, Ibrahim Aqil along with senior commanders from the Radwan force. About 10 commanders were killed there," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli military, told a media briefing.
The air strike is the third to hit the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, with the focus of the violence shifting dramatically this week from Gaza to Lebanon.
Earlier this year, strikes blamed on Israel killed a top commander of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, and a leader of its allied Palestinian militant group Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri.
"The Israeli air strike killed Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil, its armed force's second-in-command after Fuad Shukr," the source close to Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah has not officially confirmed his death, but it said after the strike that it had hit an Israeli intelligence base it claimed was responsible for unspecified "assassinations".
The United States had offered a $7 million reward for information on Aqil, describing him as a "principal member" of the organisation that claimed the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983 that killed 63 people.
Footage posted on social media and verified by AFP showed smoke rising over southern Beirut on Friday.
Communication devices explosion
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah was hit by an unprecedented attack that it has blamed on Israel, though Israel has yet to comment.
The attack saw thousands of Hezbollah operatives' communication devices explode across two days, killing 37 people and wounding thousands more.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that Israel would face retribution for the blasts.
Earlier Friday, Israel said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon following air strikes which destroyed dozens of the militant group's launchers.
Israel announced this week it was shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon.
Speaking to troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Hezbollah will pay an increasing price" as Israel tries to "ensure the safe return" of its citizens to border areas. "We are at the start of a new phase in the war," he said.
