Senior Hezbollah Leader Is Killed in Beirut in Israeli Airstrike

Israeli fighter jets bombed an apartment building in Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs on Friday in what the military called an attack on Hezbollah militants, including a senior commander who was wanted in the deadly 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.

The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the senior commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, had been killed, along with “around” 10 others from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, who were meeting underneath the residential building.

In a statement, Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia backed by Iran, confirmed that Mr. Aqeel had been killed.

The strike marked an escalation in Israel’s bloody conflict with the militia and fueled fears among Lebanese, Israelis and diplomats that Israel is driving closer to a full-blown war with Hezbollah, even as it continues to fight Hamas in Gaza.

The strike on Friday came as Lebanon was still reeling from the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday — widely attributed to Israel — that blew up communication devices belonging to Hezbollah members, killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands, Lebanese health officials said. Hezbollah’s leader vowed on Thursday to retaliate against Israel for those blasts, but did not describe how or when.

As with Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, the one on Friday in Lebanon led to destruction and death in a heavily residential area. Lebanese officials said that two apartment buildings had collapsed, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 60 others, including children. Residents described ambulances racing through the streets, a column of smoke rising above the skyline and rescuers frantically digging through rubble.

Images of the missing — including children — were being shared in local WhatsApp and Telegram groups in Lebanon.

Admiral Hagari told reporters that Mr. Aqeel and other Hezbollah commanders had been meeting in the residential building in an attempt to “use civilians as human shields.” The New York Times could not independently verify that information.

“Aqeel and the Radwan Force commanders we struck were the masterminds of, and the force behind, Hezbollah’s plan to execute an attack on northern Israel,” Admiral Hagari said, referring to a plot Israel has long accused Hezbollah of devising.

The United States has accused Mr. Aqeel of playing a key role in two of the most infamous attacks on American installations in the Middle East — the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, which killed more than 300 people, including 241 U.S. military personnel. Last year, the State Department posted a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his capture.

The killing of the Hezbollah commanders was the latest in a series of devastating blows to the group, coming just days after coordinated attacks blew up its pagers and walkie-talkies.

The bombardment on Friday was the second time in less than two months that Israel had targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the single deadliest Israeli strike in the area since Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones into northern Israel in October, prompting Israel to respond with regular airstrikes in Lebanon.

More than 160,000 people in both countries have been displaced by the fighting, and Israel has been signaling in recent days that it is shifting military resources away from Gaza and toward its northern border with Lebanon.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said in a statement on Friday that Israel would continue its “series of actions in the new stage” of its conflict with Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting along the border are able to return home safely.

President Biden said the United States has been trying “from the beginning to make sure that both the people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes, and go back safely.”

The Biden administration has also been working for months on a deal to stop the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but it has been unable to broker an agreement, even as the death toll in the territory has surpassed 40,000, according to local health officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hezbollah has said it will not stop firing rockets and drones into northern Israel until Israel ends its military offensive in Gaza.

Asked by a reporter if achieving a cease-fire was realistic, Mr. Biden said, “If I ever say it’s not realistic, then I might as well leave. A lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done. We have to keep at it.”

Lebanon’s Civil Defense said that two residential buildings had collapsed as a result of the Israeli bombardment on Friday.

Children were among those injured, but it was not immediately clear if they were among the dead, Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said in an interview. Mr. Abiad said that Beirut’s hospitals, which were inundated by patients after the communication device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday, were so far coping with the sudden influx of more patients.

The Israeli military has struck more than 100 sites in Lebanon that it says belong to Hezbollah since Thursday evening, in some of the heaviest bombardments this year. Earlier Friday, Israel said Hezbollah had fired at least 140 rockets into northern Israel.

Israel said Mr. Aqeel was the head of Hezbollah’s military operations directorate and the de facto commander of the Radwan unit, which has taken a lead role in the rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel.

On Friday, John F. Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, said the United States had “no involvement” in the strike and was working to avoid an escalation of the crisis along the Lebanon-Israel border, known as the Blue Line.

“We still believe that there is time and space for a diplomatic solution,” Mr. Kirby told reporters. “We think that that is the best way forward. War is not inevitable up there at the Blue Line, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it.”

After the strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel postponed his travel to the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to an official in the prime minister’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the Israeli leader’s schedule.

The flight to the United States had originally been planned for just after midnight on Tuesday, but was pushed back a day, the official said.

Believed to be in his 60s, Mr. Aqeel had survived multiple assassination attempts by Israel, which has said he was responsible for carrying out numerous attacks against its soldiers and civilians. In 2000, Israeli helicopters fired on Mr. Aqeel’s car in an attempt to avenge the killing of a Lebanese militia leader aligned with Israel, but he survived with only slight injuries.

In its statement confirming his death, Hezbollah called him “one of its great leaders” and said he had lived a life “full of struggle, action, wounds, and sacrifices” as well as “achievements and victories.”

After Friday’s strike, Mortada Smaoui, 30, who owns a nearby gift shop, said he had run toward the sound of a blast and arrived to find an apartment building in ruins and a car on its side.

“The building was destroyed completely,” Mr. Smaoui said. “I am shaking.”

Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad, Adam Rasgon and Ephrat Livni.