Israel said it killed a top Hezbollah commander in an air strike on south Beirut on Friday, escalating a week of devastating attacks against the Iran-aligned group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's operational commander Ibrahim Aqil was among the founding members of the group and was wanted by the United States for his alleged role in bombings which hit the US embassy in Beirut and a nearby marine corps barracks in 1983 which killed around 300 people.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 60 others injured in the Israeli attack which leveled a building in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced.

Aqil was killed alongside members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Unit as they were holding a meeting, a security source told Reuters.

The air strike killed the entire senior command of the Radwan force, or around 20 people, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official.

The United States had maintained a bounty of up to $7 million on Aqil, whom the State Department said was a key member of Hezbollah’s predecessor organization Islamic Jihad.

Aqil also directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s, the US alleges.

His killing comes shortly after two days of suspected Israeli attacks on the communication devices of Hezbollah fighters beginning on Tuesday which killed over three dozen people on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Iran condemned the Friday air strike as an unlawful attack on civilians.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli madness and arrogance that crossed all boundaries by targeting residential areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of dozens, including children and women," the Iranian embassy in Beirut said in a post on X.