Israeli military claims attacking Hezbollah's intelligence HQ in Beirut

Israel said its air force has attacked Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut on Sunday as well as an underground workshop for the production of weapons.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group's southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development.

“Earlier this morning [Sunday], the IAF [Israeli air force] conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut,” the military said in a statement.

It was not clear if the three were killed in the attack on the headquarters or in separate actions.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment.

Israel's military said on Saturday it had destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday.

Early on Sunday, Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from Beirut's suburbs, but it was not clear if this was a result of the same strike.

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets in support of the Palestinian freedom fighters group Hamas.

Since October 2023, tens of thousands have been displaced and more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them in the last month, according to Lebanon's health ministry, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.