Israel claims 3 Hezbollah officials killed in Beirut airstrike

JERUSALEM

Israel claimed on Friday that an airstrike it conducted on Tuesday in the southern suburb of Beirut resulted in the deaths of three Hezbollah officials.

Initially, the Israeli army had announced the killing of Mohammed Qabisi, but later said other officials were also killed in the same attack.

“The strike carried out by the army on Tuesday in southern Beirut led to the deaths of Mohammed Qabisi, the commander of the missile unit in Hezbollah, as well as his deputy, Abbas Ibrahim Sharaf al-Din, and Hussein Hani, another official within the missile system,” a statement said.

The military said that "in another airstrike, Jihad Shafiq Khazal Khanfar, another official in the ground-to-ground missile system of Hezbollah, was eliminated."

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the Israeli army’s claims.

The Lebanese group on Wednesday had confirmed the death of Qabisi.

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 following a cross-border attack by Hamas last October.

Israeli bombing of areas in Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, and efforts for a temporary truce have not yielded any results.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara​​​​​​​