Hamas said that Aqil was killed in a “cowardly” assassination carried out by Israeli aircraft in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hamas considered the assassination of Aqil a “crime” and “foolishness” for which Israel will pay the price.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement, early Saturday morning, the killing of Aqil, the acting head of the group’s Radwan unit.
The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut on Friday.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the strike on the southern suburbs targeted and killed Aqil, the commander of the Radwan Force, an elite Hezbollah force, as well as 10 Hezbollah members.
“The attack in Lebanon is to protect Israel,” Hagari said in a press conference following the strike, describing Akil as a Hezbollah militant responsible for regularly firing rockets at Israel.
The Israeli military did not disclose the identities of the other leaders it claimed were killed in the strike.
It is worth noting that Aqil served in Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council, and the United States imposed sanctions on him for his involvement in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the US embassy in Beirut and the US Marine barracks.
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