Hezbollah said it fired dozens of missiles into an air base in southeast Haifa as a retaliatory move after a series of attacks from Israel killed dozens of people in Lebanon last week, according to reports.
The death toll rose to at least 37 people after a missile attack Friday in Beirut, as Israel hit against Hezbollah, The Associated Press reported. One of Hezbollah’s senior leaders, as well as women and children, were among those reportedly killed.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said that about 10 projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, and most had been intercepted, according to the New York Times. AP said that Israel emergency medical services reported that a man was “lightly wounded” by missile shrapnel that was intercepted in a village near Galilee.
Earlier Saturday, Health Minister Firass Abiad said during a news conference that the Friday strike in southern Beirut had left 31 people dead, including seven women and three children. At least 68 people were also injured, with about 15 still recovering in the hospital and two remain in critical condition, he added.
The strike took out Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s operations unit and the commander of the elite special forces unit the Radwan Force, according to the Israeli military. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) added that other senior Radwan commanders were also killed.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Aqil and the other Radwan commanders were huddled underground “beneath a residential building in the heart of the Dahieh neighborhood, using civilians as human shields.”
