Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said that Israel had issued a ‘declaration’ of war.

Beirut was rocked by explosions on Friday, as Israeli forces began “a new phase” in the fight against Hezbollah after eliminating 20 senior leaders of the terror organization in an airstrike.

Israeli warplanes carried out precision strikes in Beirut suburbs targeting Hezbollah’s strongholds. The operation was part of a larger operation to signal that the Jewish state would be ready for the most intense battles on its northern front since years. The strikes on Friday were the deadliest attack against Beirut in a single day since the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has also declared war on Hezbollah, after nearly a year of smaller exchanges and tit-fortat fighting with the terror group following the Oct. 7 attack.

Hezbollah’s senior commander Ibrahim Aqil, who had a $7,000,000 bounty on his head from the U.S. for his involvement in terror attacks that date back to the 1980s, was reportedly killed by the airstrikes. This is a serious blow to the group as they deal with the aftermath of the mass radio and pager attacks this week. Israel claimed to have destroyed the entire command structure of Hezbollah Radwan, a special operation unit led by Aqil.

Israeli officials claim that Aqil and other Hezbollah leaders were meeting in the basement a residential building to discuss how “to use civilians as human shiels” when Israel attacked the structure, killing all. Hezbollah had fired dozens missiles at Israel on Thursday, killing two soldiers as a revenge for the surprise attacks this week.

Israel’s operation showed that it was not going to stand by while Hezbollah fired rockets and drones at its northern territory. This forced around 50,000 civilians to leave their homes. Hezbollah was also left reeling after a week of brutal attacks on their communications network, including the simultaneous explosions of pagers and radios in all parts across the country on Tuesday and on Wednesday.

Two residential buildings collapsed in Beirut as a direct result of the airstrikes on Friday. The strikes followed a precision attack on Hezbollah’s strongholds the day before. The airstrike on Thursday occurred as Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah was declaring Israel’s surprise attack a “declaration” of war against his terror organization.

Lebanese authorities say that at least 12 people were killed in the airstrikes on Friday, and 60 others were injured. Around 30 people were killed and thousands injured in radio and pager attacks that took place earlier this week, usually around terrorists’ crotch areas.

Joe Biden, the president of the White House that has been trying to force peace talks between Israel and Hezbollah did not respond immediately to Israel’s latest attack. He only said his team was working to promote diplomatic talks and achieve ceasefire. Amos Hochstein, a White House envoy, was in Israel Monday to warn against a full-scale war with Hezbollah.

Biden told his cabinet Friday, before a meeting, that “the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and our entire team are working to get this done.” We’ll keep working until we succeed,” Biden said Friday before a meeting with his cabinet.

Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah stated Thursday that Israel’s radio and pager attack had dealt a “heavy, painful blow” against the terror group. This caused panic amongst its militants.

Nasrallah declared that “these massacres are war crimes or a war declaration” and promised “a crushing reaction from the axis resistance.”