Lebanon’s Hezbollah says senior leader killed amid Israeli bombardment

Lebanese armed group confirms death of Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi hours after Israel said he was targeted in air strike.

Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah has announced the death of one of its top commanders amid Israel’s intense bombardment of the country.

Hezbollah confirmed that Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi had been killed in a post on Telegram early on Wednesday, hours after the Israeli military said he had been “eliminated” in an air strike on Ghobeiri in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israeli officials said that Qubaisi, also known as “Hajj Abu Musa”, led a number of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket units and had been responsible for a 2000 attack in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said that the Israeli strike had killed six people and injured 15 others.

Israeli attacks since Monday have killed at least 569 people and wounded 1,835 others in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health authorities.

“It’s a very tense atmosphere, a lot of people are very worried,” said Al Jazeera’s Oliver Marsden, reporting from Beirut.

“You also have the tens of thousands of Lebanese people fleeing from the south, heading north, here to Beirut.”

The escalation of fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border, which has seen low-level skirmishes since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October, follows last week’s mass detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah members in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets into Israel in recent days, most of which have been intercepted by Israel’s anti-missile defences.

The Lebanese group fired about 300 rockets towards Israel on Tuesday, injuring six civilians and soldiers, according to the Israeli military.

Israel’s bombing campaign has forced thousands of people to flee southern Lebanon and raised fears of a new all-out conflict in the Middle East just as Israel’s war in Gaza is approaching the one-year mark.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the escalating conflict.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Lebanon was “at the brink”.

“We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink. The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza,” Guterres told world leaders.