Lebanon raises death toll from Israeli bombing in Beirut to 31

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad on Saturday raised the death toll to 31 in the Israeli bombing that hit a residential building on the outskirts of Beirut yesterday, leaving 68 injured.

At a press conference, the head of the government department said that three of the 31 dead were children and seven were women, adding that “there are still unidentified remains.”

Of these deaths, at least 16 were members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, the movement confirmed in several statements, including the deaths of two senior officials, Commander Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, leader of the elite Radwan Forces corps.

“The total number of deaths in these three days, including explosions of pagers and walkie talkies, reaches 70,” Abiad said.

The minister said that since Tuesday hospitals have carried out more than 2,000 surgeries on those injured in the wave of simultaneous explosions involving thousands of pagers and walkie talkies in the hands of members of Hezbollah, an ally of Iran.

The unprecedented explosions have been blamed on Israel and Hezbollah has already warned that it will respond, as this is the incident with the most victims since the beginning of border clashes between the parties almost a year ago.