Israeli Army Carries Out First Strike on Beirut Since Ceasefire

The Israel Defense Forces sought to assassinate the commander of Iran-backed Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force in Beirut, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.

An Israeli airstrike took place in the densely populated Haret Hreik neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs. A warship also fired three missiles at a residential building in the area, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.

There has been no official confirmation that the Radwan Force commander was killed.

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Other Israeli attacks took place in southern Lebanon, close to Israel's northern borders and where the Israel Defense Forces strikes on Hezbollah's operations have been most frequent. "We promised to bring security to the residents of the North. This is how we act and this is how we will continue to act!" Netanyahu and Katz said in the statement. 

Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah resumed in early March after the Lebanese militia fired rockets and drones into the Jewish state. The group said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, early in the Iran war, which erupted after the US and Israel struck the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28.

The death toll in Lebanon has exceeded 2,700, according to the country's health ministry, while dozens of Israelis were killed in Lebanon and Israel in attacks by Iran and Hezbollah, a militant organization that over decades had amassed military and political power in Lebanon. But Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization by the US, suffered crushing losses and the deaths of top leaders in an earlier war that began with the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Wednesday's attack on Beirut took place as the US and Iran were circling around a fresh proposal to end their war. Tehran has threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire with the US if Israel keeps up its Lebanon campaign.

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Netanyahu said earlier in the day that he speaks with President Donald Trump "on an almost daily basis," citing "full coordination" between the US and Israel.

The US is expected to set a date for negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, yet talks cannot take place until the ceasefire is fully implemented, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in late April.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire regularly during the truce, albeit at a slower pace. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday a high-level meeting between Lebanon and Israel, which don't recognize one another, remain unlikely under the current circumstances.

Salam last August commissioned the Lebanese army to come up with a plan to seize all arms in the war-plagued country. Hezbollah, however, has adamantly refused to give up its firepower, with the armed forces lacking the resources to execute a disarmament.