Israel's attack on Beirut comes after two days of attacks that dealt a critical blow to Hezbollah in which communication devices like pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded. It was the deadliest strike targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The death toll from Israel's airstrike on the southern Beirut stronghold of the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hezbollah has risen to 37, the country's top health official said Saturday.

Hezbollah said that 16 of its members were among the 31 killed due to airstrikes by Israel, adding that one of its "top leaders", Ibrahim Aqil was also killed.

Hezbollah launched around 170 rockets towards northern Israel, following a vow made by the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to respond to Israel's intelligence operation involving the detonation of pager and radio devices in Beirut

In a tragic turn of events on Thursday, two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight others sustained injuries during missile and drone assaults by Hezbollah in northern Israel, the Israeli army confirmed.

A strike on a suburb of Lebanon’s capital killed Ibrahim Aqil, a prominent Hezbollah leader, Hezbollah and Israel’s military said Friday. The rare airstrike on Lebanon’s capital left at least 14 people dead, and destroyed one residential building while also damaging another, Lebanese health and civil defense officials said, escalating a days-long Israeli assault on Hezbollah amid fears of all-out war. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed retaliation Thursday against Israel for detonations of electronic devices that killed at least 37 people this week and left thousands injured. Aqil is a Hezbollah leader who sits on the group’s military council and has led Hezbollah’s Operations Unit for two decades, the IDF said. The State Department said Aqil was a “principal member” of the Hezbollah terrorist Islamic Jihad Organization that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps barracks bombing in October 1983, which…