Israeli Forces Kick Off ‘New Era’ In Fight Against Hezbollah, Eliminating 20 of Terror Group’s Senior Commanders

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel issued ‘declaration of war’

Explosions rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday as Israeli forces kicked off “a new era” in their fight against Hezbollah by eliminating at least 20 of the terror group’s senior commanders in an airstrike.

Israeli warplanes conducted precision strikes across Beirut’s suburbs, targeting Hezbollah strongholds as part of an operation that signaled the Jewish state is prepared for some of the most intense fighting on its northern front in years. The Friday strikes marked the deadliest single-day attack on Beirut since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. They also confirmed that Israel is in full war swing against Hezbollah after spending nearly a year engaged in smaller, tit-for-tat exchanges with the terror group in the wake of Oct. 7.

Senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil—who had a $7 million U.S. bounty on his head for his role in terror attacks dating back to the 1980s—was reportedly killed during the airstrikes, dealing a major blow to the terror group as it grapples with the fallout of this week’s mass pager and radio attacks. Israel said it completely annihilated the command force behind Hezbollah’s Radwan group, a special operations unit run by Aqil.

Israeli officials say Aqil was meeting with other Hezbollah commanders in the basement of a residential building, discussing how to “use civilians as human shields,” when Israel bombed the structure, killing everyone. The strike occurred after Hezbollah fired dozens of missiles into Israel, killing two soldiers on Thursday as payback for this week’s surprise attacks.

Israel’s operation made clear that it would no longer stand by as Hezbollah launched fire rockets and drones into its northern territory, forcing the evacuation of around 50,000 civilians from their homes. It also capped a brutal week for Hezbollah, which was still reeling from a series of sophisticated strikes on its communications networks that saw pagers and handheld radios across the country simultaneously explode on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At least two residential buildings in Beirut collapsed as a result of Friday’s airstrikes, which followed a similar precision attack the day before on Hezbollah strongholds. Thursday’s airstrike occurred just as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah appeared on television to declare Israel’s surprise operation a “declaration of war” against his terror group.

Lebanese health authorities claim at least 12 were killed and another 60 wounded in Friday’s airstrikes. The pager and radio attacks earlier in the week killed around 30 and wounded thousands more, often around the terrorists’ “crotch areas.”

The White House, which has been scrambling to thrust peace talks on Israel and Hezbollah, did not immediately respond to the Jewish state’s latest attack, with President Joe Biden only saying his team is working to foster diplomatic talks and achieve a ceasefire. White House envoy Amos Hochstein was in Israel on Monday to warn the country against an all-out war with Hezbollah.

“The secretary of state, secretary of defense, our whole team is working—and the intelligence community to try to get that done,” Biden said Friday before a meeting with his cabinet. “We’re going to keep at it till we get it done.” Hours earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden-Harris administration has privately conceded that it will not secure a ceasefire before Biden leaves office.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said Thursday that Israel’s pager and radio attack dealt “a heavy, painful blow” to the terror group, sparking mass panic among its rank-and-file militants.

“These massacres amount to war crimes or a declaration of war,” Nasrallah said, promising “a crushing response from the axis of resistance.”