[Source: Shepparton News]

A senior Hezbollah official has eluded an Israeli assassination attempt in Beirut, three security sources say, as Israeli strikes there killed 22 people and the United Nations said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were in growing danger.

Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, was targeted by Israel on Thursday night but survived, the security sources said.

Earlier on Thursday, a Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut targeted at least one senior official in Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The Israeli strikes hit a densely packed residential neighbourhood of apartment buildings and small shops in the heart of Beirut. Israel had not previously struck the area, which is removed from Beirut’s southern suburbs where Hezbollah’s headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.

Israel did not issue evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes on Thursday, which were the deadliest attack on central Beirut since the beginning of the hostilities.

The number of casualties rose quickly, and as midnight approached the Lebanese Health Ministry reported 22 people killed and 117 wounded. Among the dead was a family of eight, including three children, who had evacuated from the south, according to a security source.

Reuters witnesses said at least one strike hit near a gas station and a thick column of smoke was visible. A large fire blazed in the background as rescue workers searched the rubble for survivors, according to video broadcast by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

There was no immediate comment on the incident by Israel.

After Israel killed a series of high-ranking Hezbollah officials in recent weeks, including top leader Hassan Nasrallah, Safa was among the few surviving senior figures as the group’s upper echelons struggled to reorganise.

The attempt to kill Safa, whose role merges security and political affairs, marked a widening of Israel’s targets among Hezbollah officials, which previously focused on the group’s military commanders and top leaders.

Safa, whom Middle East media reports said was born in 1960, oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The 2006 incident triggered a 34-day war with Israel.

Reuters also reported that in 2021 Safa warned the judge investigating Beirut’s catastrophic 2020 port explosion, who sought to question several politicians allied with Hezbollah, that Hezbollah would remove him from the probe.

The Israeli military issued a new evacuation warning on Thursday night for Beirut’s southern suburbs including specific buildings. Earlier in the day, Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south to avoid harm from fighting.

The White House said the US was deeply concerned by reports that Israeli forces fired on UN positions and was pressing Israel for details.

Israel’s military said in a statement its troops operated in the Naqoura area, “next to a UNIFIL base”.

“Accordingly, the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area,” Israel’s statement said, adding it maintains routine communication with UNIFIL.

Hezbollah said it had fired a missile salvo at Israeli forces on Thursday as they were trying to pull casualties out of the Ras al-Naqoura area, and they were directly hit.

The conflict erupted one year ago when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. It has intensified dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs, the south and the Bekaa Valley, before sending in ground forces.

The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in the region, awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile strike on October 1.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 2169 people in Lebanon over the past year, the Lebanese government said in its daily update. The majority have been killed since September 27, when Israel expanded its military campaign. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.