Israeli forces have raided Al Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah and imposed a 45-day closure. Heavily armed, masked Israeli soldiers entered the building and handed the order to the network’s Walid al-Omari early on Sunday. They did not provide a reason for the decision. “There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” a soldier told al-Omari as Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast the conversation live. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment.”  

This morning (Friday), the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, met with the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command and the division commanders in the Northern Command.

A soldier from the 50th Battalion, Nahal Brigade, was severely injured earlier today during combat in southern Gaza. The soldier was evacuated to a hospital for further treatment, his family was notified.

Members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit were killed alongside top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in the Israeli strike in Beirut as they were holding a meeting, two security sources tell Reuters. (Reuters)

The IDF just announced that they carried out an airstrike in Beirut. Details not yet available.

Video footage from an IDF airstrike in Beirut shows heavy damage. Reports that a senior Hezbollah terrorist was targeted. No confirmation or number of casualties.

The Israeli airstrike in Beirut targeted a senior Hezbollah figure, two security sources tell Reuters. NO CONFIRMATION WHO WAS TARGETED

BREAKING UPDATE: The target of the Israeli airstrike in Beirut was Ibrahim Aqil, security sources tell Israeli media. Aqil sits on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body. NO CONFIRMATION THAT HE WAS KILLED During the 1980s, Aqil was a principal member of Islamic Jihad Organization—Hizballah’s terrorist cell—that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel. In the 1980s, Aqil directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there.

According to John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, the United States was not briefed in advance about Israel’s decision to launch an attack on a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah says the Israeli strike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood killed Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander in the terror group’s elite Radwan unit. “The Israeli air strike killed Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil, its armed force’s second-in-command after Fuad Shukr,” who was killed by an Israeli strike in July, also in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, says the source who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. (AP)