Lebanon’s health minister says the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb the day before has risen to 31, including seven women and three children
Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb the day before has risen to 31, including seven women and three children.
Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded of whom 15 remain in hospital, in the deadliest Israeli airstrike on Beirut since the summer 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
The casualties included Ibrahim Akil, a Hezbollah commander who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Forces, as well as about a dozen members of the militant group who were meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed. Three Syrian nationals were among the dead, Abiad said.
Late Friday, the Israeli military said the strike killed 11 Hezbollah operatives, including Akil.
Israel launched the rare airstrike in the densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home from work and students from schools.
