Israel-Lebanon live: Hamas warns Israel will ‘pay price’ after Hezbollah chief killed

Hezbollah has said a second senior commander, Ahmed Wahbi, was also killed in Israel’s strike on Beirut on Friday.

Wahbi oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024.

Hezbollah had earlier confirmed that its senior commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in the strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Hamas has warned Israel will “pay the price” for killing a top Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The group, based in Gaza, described the killing as a “crime” and “folly”. Hamas is part of Iran’s so called axis of resistance.

The “axis of resistance” comprises a group of violent proxies across Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, coordinated by Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC.

The Quds Force’s aim is to export Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution abroad. The US assassinated the former head of the Quds Force, Qassem Solemaini, in January 2020.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the most powerful group in the axis, boasts 100,000 fighters and has exchanged fire with Israeli forces in near daily exchanges since Hamas attacked Israel last year.

This week saw a dizzying escalation in the 11-month-old conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

First came two days of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah — deadly attacks pinned on Israel that also maimed civilians around Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s leader vowed to retaliate, and on Friday the militant group launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel. Later in the day, Israel said it killed the commander of Hezbollah’s most elite unit with a strike in Beirut that left at least 14 dead.

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An Israeli man has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a plot to assassinate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other senior officials after being recruited by Iran, Israel’s internal security service has said.

The suspect – who was arrested in August – is a 73-year-old businessman with links to Turkey who had been smuggled into Iran for two meetings to discuss assassinating either Mr Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, it was alleged in a joint statement from the Israeli police and Shin Bet.

The allegations date back to April, when when the Israeli man – named as Moti Maman – agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.

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Israel’s prime minister criticised the new Labour administration for suspending around 30 arms exports to the country amid concerns they could be used in violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza conflict.

Sir Keir Starmer has also dropped the previous Conservative government’s plan to challenge the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) application for an arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu.

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After nearly a year of conflict, senior US officials reportedly have lost hope that Israel and Hamas will reach a ceasefire deal before Joe Biden leaves office.

“No deal is imminent,” an unnamed official toldThe Wall Street Journal. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”

“There’s no chance now of it happening,” another official, from an Arab country, added in the same report. “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration.”

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The particularly novel and surprising nature of the attack has led some to worry that it could represent a new front in warfare. And many have asked whether that might mean that all of our consumer devices could really be considered safe.

The simple answer is: yes, they are. There is nothing at all to indicate that the attacks suggest there is any danger to the smartphones and other technology that most people carry around every day.

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Human rights advocates are calling for an independent investigation into the deadly explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon and Syria, suggesting the blasts may have violated international law if the devices were fashioned as booby traps.

The explosions that have been widely blamed on Israel killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000, including many members of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Israel has not confirmed or denied involvement.

The United Nations human rights office and some advocacy groups have cried foul, arguing that the strikes were “indiscriminate” because it’s nearly impossible to know who was holding the devices, or where they were, when they went off. But some academics insist the explosions were precisely focused because the devices had been distributed to Hezbollah members.

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The scale of the attacks, as well as their theatrical nature, can be seen as a bid by Israel’s military and intelligence forces to repair their reputation, left in tatters following the 7 October Hamas attacks.

It could also represent an attempt by Israel to address the problem of its northern border. Visiting the area this week, I have seen the effects of the continual exchanges of rocket and missile attacks, which have led to 60,000 people being evacuated from Israeli towns. According to reports, Lebanese villages have also been evacuated as a result of the fighting.

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