A high-ranking Hezbollah commander and at least 15 others were killed Friday in Beirut by an Israeli air strike according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Special operations commander Ibrahim Aqil and 15 other terrorists have reportedly died as a result of a targeted strike on Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces, the IDF announced Saturday. Hezbollah has allegedly launched over 8,000 rockets, missiles and UAVs at Israel since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas initiated its deadly attack on Israel.

“Ibrahim Aqil had the blood of many innocent people on his hands,” the IDF wrote in the press release. “The Israel Defense Forces has a duty to defend the people of Israel and ensure their safe and secure return to their homes in northern Israel.”

The IDF said Aqil is responsible for the killing of 63 people in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the deaths of 241 U.S. personnel in a 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks and the kidnapping of several Americans and Germans in Lebanon. Aqil and the other commanders were planning to invade Israel soon, according to the IDF.

“These terrorists planned to do in northern Israel what Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7th: invade Israeli homes and kill innocent people,” a Friday press release read. “They were in the middle of planning more terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”

In two separate attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday Israel apparently remotely detonated hundreds of communications devices operated by Hezbollah, killing at least nine and injuring around 300.

Hezbollah is estimated to have 40,000 to 50,000 members and is “the world’s most heavily armed non-state actor,” according to a 2018 study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The Radwan force is responsible for the majority of the organization’s recent cross-border attacks on Israel.

“We are determined to fulfill our mission: Protecting the people of Israel and fulfilling our goal of bringing our hostages home and ensuring an enduring defeat of Hamas in Gaza,” the IDF wrote.

Featured Image: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr

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