Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah leader in a Beirut airstrike

Israel says it killed a prominent Hezbollah official in a "targeted strike" on the Lebanese city of Beirut on Friday, after Hezbollah launched an overwhelming barrage of fire across the border in response to a wave of devastating attacks on the group's communication systems.

Ibrahim Aqil, who the Israeli military referred to as "the head of the Hezbollah terrorist organization's operations," was allegedly killed in the attack, according to an IDF statement made later on Friday. The Lebanese National News Agency reports that 66 additional people were hurt and 12 individuals died as a result of the attack.

Even as Israeli forces maintained their deadly operations and strikes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Friday's strike marked the fourth day in a row of surprise attacks on Beirut and other locations across the nation.

Tuesday afternoon saw the first significant assault against Hezbollah of the week when members of the militant groups' pagers detonated almost simultaneously. Hezbollah had begun using pagers as a means of communication until its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, urged followers to abandon high-tech gadgets in order to avoid more deaths at the hands of the organization.

The second wave of explosions hit Lebanon almost exactly twenty-four hours after Hezbollah walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut and the south of the nation on Wednesday.

The twin attacks left over 3,000 people injured and at least 37 dead, several of them children.

The Israeli security cabinet decided on Monday to include a new goal in its continuing war with Hamas and Hezbollah: guaranteeing the safe return of citizens from towns along its northern border with Lebanon to their homes. This voting took place before to the unexpected strikes on Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in both northern Israel and southern Lebanon as a result of Hezbollah and Israel's cross-border clashes, which have lasted for almost a year. This is the first time that the official war aim of returning inhabitants of northern Israel has been stated, even if it has long been recognized as a political necessity for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.