UPDATES WITH DECK, HEZBOLLAH’S STATEMENT, HEADLINE, DECK CHANGED
By Wassim Saifuldine
BEIRUT (AA) At least two people were killed and 15 others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a Hezbollah commander in the southern suburb of Beirut on Thursday, the Lebanese Health Ministry and Israeli army said.
Lebanon's state news agency NNA said three missiles were fired into a residential apartment in a 10-story building in al-Qaem neighborhood in the capital Beirut.
The Israeli army confirmed that the strike targeted Mohammed Hussein Sarour, who it said was the head of Hezbollah's aerial force unit.
Later in the evening, Hezbollah issued a statement confirming that Sarour, 51, was killed in the Israeli strike, bringing the group's total death toll to 511 since October of last year.
Thursday's attack was the third to have targeted the southern suburb of Beirut in a week.
Israel has pounded Lebanon since Monday morning, killing at least 677 people and injuring over 2,500 others, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,500 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.
The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of spreading the Gaza conflict regionally.