Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Ibrahim Aqil had been killed with other senior members of an elite Hezbollah unit in the airstrike, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Hezbollah confirmed Aqil's death in a statement just after midnight that called him "one of its top leaders," without providing details of how he died.

In a second statement issued later, Hezbollah said Aqil was killed in Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh in what it called a "treacherous Israeli assassination".

It said that Ahmed Wahbi, a commander who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was also killed in the Israeli strike.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 14 people died in the strike and the toll was expected to climb as rescue teams worked through the night. The ministry did not reveal whether the toll included Aqil or any other Hezbollah commanders.

Earlier, the ministry said at least 66 people were injured, nine of whom were in critical condition.

A second security source said at least six other Hezbollah commanders died when multiple missiles slammed into the opening of a building's garage. The explosion tore into the building's lower levels as Aqil met other commanders inside, read the report.

In its statements, Hezbollah said that several more of its members were killed, but it did not disclose whether they were commanders or its foot soldiers.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud whistling and several consecutive blasts at the time of the strike.

In a brief statement carried by Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week that Israel is launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X: "The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes."

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began rocketing Israel in October in sympathy with Palestinians in the nearly year-old Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel, which last fought an all-out war against Hezbollah 18 years ago, has said it will use force if necessary to ensure its citizens can return to northern Israel.

The Israeli military described Aqil as the acting commander of the Radwan special forces unit, and said it had killed him along with around 10 other senior commanders as they met. Aqil sat on Hezbollah's top military council, sources in Lebanon told Reuters.

The strike inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after two days of attacks in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Local broadcasters showed groups of people gathered near the site, and reported they were searching for missing people, most of them children. Drones were still flying over Beirut's southern suburbs hours after the strike.

"We are not afraid, but we want a solution. We cannot continue with the country like this," said Alain Feghali, a resident of Beirut who spoke to Reuters. "War? I don't know if it started or not, but nothing is reassuring. It is clear that the two sides will not stop."

The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine-Hennis Plasschaert, said Friday's strike in a densely populated area of Beirut's southern suburbs was part of "an extremely dangerous cycle of violence with devastating consequences. This must stop now."

The strike marked the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, the group's top military commander, read the report.

Aqil had a $7-million bounty on his head from the United States over his link to the deadly bombing of Marines in Lebanon in 1983, according to the U.S. State Department website.

The Israeli military said Aqil had been head of Hezbollah operations since 2004 and was responsible for a plan to launch a raid on northern Israel, similar to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that triggered the war in Gaza.

"The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning their ‘October 7th’ on the northern border for years," Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said.

"We reached them, and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of Israel's citizens."

The Israeli military reported warning sirens in northern Israel following the Beirut strike, and Israeli media reported heavy rocket fire there.

Hezbollah said it twice fired Katyusha rockets at what it described as the main intelligence headquarters in northern Israel "which is responsible for assassinations".

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any Israeli notification to the United States before the Beirut strike, adding Americans were strongly urged not to travel to Lebanon, or to leave if they were there.

However he added that, "war is not inevitable ... and we're going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it."

The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited by the Gaza war, has intensified significantly this week.

On Thursday night, the Israeli military carried out its most intensive airstrikes in southern Lebanon since the conflict erupted almost a year ago.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst since they fought a war in 2006. Tens of thousands of people have had to leave homes on both sides of the border.

While the conflict has largely been contained to areas at or near the frontier, this week's escalation has heightened concerns that it could widen and further intensify.v

Some 53 people have been killed and 51 others are missing in Mexico's western Sinaloa state since rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel began clashing on Sept 9, local authorities said on Friday, with gruesome violence showing no signs of abating.

The trigger for the conflict between the two most powerful factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, a drug gang, dates back to July, when legendary trafficker and leader of one of those groupings, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was arrested in the United States, Reuters reported.

Zambada, 74, alleges that a senior member of the Los Chapitos, another faction of the cartel, kidnapped him and then flew him to the United States against his will.

Since fighting broke out on Sept 9, shootouts have disrupted daily life in the capital, Culiacan, where schools have had to close on some days while restaurants and shops shuttered early.

Sinaloa governor Rubén Rocha Moya on Friday said more than 40 people have been arrested in recent days, while more than 5,000 food packages have been handed out across Sinaloa.

Mexico's military, which has struggled to calm the violence, on Thursday arrested the alleged head of security for Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, the leader of Los Chapitos and son of jailed former Sinaloa kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Fernando Perez Medina, known as "El Piyi", was captured in Culiacan, according to a federal security source.

Meanwhile, Mexico's Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) said it was providing resources to local authorities to feed a tigress tied to a tree. Senior Sinaloan narcos often keep tigers as pet animals.

Profepa said in a statement that vets in Sinaloa had declined to assist due to security fears, and it had provided military officials with a "cage, a dart rifle and darts". But the violence had prevented the military from rescuing it.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday said that the United States was partly responsible for the instability because they "carried out this operation", referencing the prior surrender talks between U.S. officials and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the trafficker who kidnapped Zambada.

U.S. officials have privately confirmed that they held talks with Guzman but U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, last month said that American officials were surprised to discover Zambada on U.S. soil.

Salazar added that no U.S. resources or personnel were involved in the July 25 kidnapping of Zambada.

Israeli warplanes carried out late on Thursday their most intense strikes on southern Lebanon in nearly a year of war, heightening the conflict between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah amid calls for restraint.

The White House said a diplomatic solution was achievable and urgent, and Britain called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The U.S. is "afraid and concerned about potential escalation," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing, Reuters reported.

The intense barrage followed attacks earlier in the week attributed by Lebanon and Hezbollah to Israel that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers, killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon.

In Thursday's late operation, Israel's military said its jets over two hours struck hundreds of multiple-rocket-launcher barrels in southern Lebanon that were set to be fired immediately toward Israel.

The bombardment included more than 52 strikes across southern Lebanon after 9 p.m.(1800 GMT), Lebanon's state news agency NNA said. Three Lebanese security sources said these were the heaviest aerial strikes since the conflict began in October.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel's military vowed to continue to attack Hezbollah and said its strikes throughout Thursday hit about 100 rocket launchers plus other targets in southern Lebanon.

In a TV address on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday "crossed all red lines".

"The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals," he said, adding the attacks "could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war."

Israel has not directly commented on the pager and radio detonations, which security sources say were probably carried out by its Mossad spy agency, which has a long history of carrying out sophisticated attacks on foreign soil.

The Lebanese mission to the U.N. said in a letter to the Security Council on Thursday that Israel was responsible for detonating the devices via electronic messages and explosives implanted in them before they arrived in Lebanon, in line with theories that have circulated since the explosions.

The 15-member Security Council is due to meet on Friday over the blasts. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the Security Council to take a firm stand to stop Israel's "aggression" and "technological war".