Israeli forces usher in a “new era” in the fight against Hezbollah and eliminate 20 high-ranking commanders of the terror group

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel had issued a “declaration of war”

Explosions rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday as Israeli forces ushered in “a new era” in their fight against Hezbollah by killing at least 20 of the terror group's senior commanders in an air strike.

Israeli warplanes carried out precision strikes on Beirut suburbs, targeting Hezbollah strongholds. The operation signaled that the Jewish state is prepared for the fiercest fighting on its northern front in years. Friday's attacks were the deadliest single-day assault on Beirut since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. They also confirmed that Israel is in a full state of war with Hezbollah, having been engaged in minor exchanges with the terror group for nearly a year since Oct. 7.

Senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil – who had a $7 million bounty on his head for his role in terrorist attacks in the 1980s – was reportedly killed in the airstrikes, a major blow to the terror group, which is still dealing with the aftermath of this week's mass pager and radio attacks. Israel said it had completely wiped out the commando force behind Hezbollah's Radwan Group, a special forces unit led by Aqil.

Israeli officials say Aqil was meeting with other Hezbollah commanders in the basement of an apartment building discussing how to “use civilians as human shields” when Israel bombed the building, killing everyone. The attack came after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel, killing two soldiers on Thursday in retaliation for this week's surprise attacks.

Israel's operation made clear that it would no longer stand idly by as Hezbollah fired rockets and drones into its northern territory, forcing some 50,000 civilians from their homes. It also marked the culmination of a brutal week for Hezbollah, which was still reeling from a series of sophisticated attacks on its communications networks that saw pagers and handheld radios explode simultaneously across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At least two residential buildings in Beirut collapsed as a result of Friday's airstrikes, which followed a similarly precise attack on Hezbollah strongholds a day earlier. Thursday's airstrike came just as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah appeared on television to describe Israel's surprise operation as a “declaration of war” against his terror group.

Lebanese health authorities believe that at least 12 people were killed and 60 wounded in Friday's airstrikes. The pager and radio attacks earlier in the week killed about 30 people and injured thousands, often in the terrorists' “crotch area.”

The White House, which is trying to advance peace talks between Israel and Hezbollah, did not immediately respond to the Jewish state's latest attack. President Joe Biden said only that his team was working to encourage diplomatic talks and reach a ceasefire. White House envoy Amos Hochstein was in Israel on Monday to warn the country against an all-out war with Hezbollah.

“The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, our entire team – and the intelligence community – are working to get this done,” Biden said on Friday before a meeting with his cabinet. “We will keep at it until we get it done.” Hours earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden-Harris administration had privately admitted that it would not reach a ceasefire before Biden leaves office.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said on Thursday that Israel's pager and radio attack had dealt the terror group “a heavy, painful blow” and sparked mass panic among its rank-and-file fighters.

“These massacres amount to war crimes or a declaration of war,” Nasrallah said, promising “a devastating response from the Axis of Resistance.”