Hezbollah southern front commander 'safe' after targeted Israeli strike

Hezbollah has said that senior leader Ali Karaki is okay and moved to a safe place, after he was targeted in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

On Monday, an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs targeted Karaki, the group's commander for south Lebanon, according to a source close to Hezbollah and Israeli media.

"The target of the Israeli strike was Ali Karaki, the current commander of the southern front and the third-in-command after" Aqil and Shukr were killed, said the source on Monday, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

It was the third Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah's top brass in the group's southern Beirut bastion in recent weeks, after a strike on Friday killed Ibrahim Aqil, who headed the group's elite Radwan Force, and a July attack killed senior commander Fuad Shukr.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel was broadcasting live from near the scene of the strike, while an AFP news agency correspondent said the area had been cordoned off.

Al-Manar said a missile exploded inside the underground shelter of a building, adding residents reported that they did not hear any loud explosion when the strike hit.

Also on Monday, Israel's army chief said the country's strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon were hitting combat infrastructure Hezbollah had been building for two decades.

"Essentially, we are targeting combat infrastructure that Hezbollah has been building for the past 20 years," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement.

Halevi said the army is now "preparing for the next phases" of the operation.