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Death toll rises in Israeli military “targeted attack” that killed Hezbollah commanders
The death toll from a “targeted attack” by the Israeli military on a Beirut suburb rose to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday.
Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded in the attack, of whom 15 remain hospitalized. He said search and rescue operations are ongoing and the number of casualties will likely rise.
The strike – the deadliest targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war – hit a densely populated southern neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home.
Bilal Hussein / AP
The Israeli military said Saturday it killed 16 Hezbollah operatives. Among those killed were Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing. Iran-backed Hezbollah said Friday night that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths.
The United States had previously offered a “reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and or conviction” of Aqil, who it has said was a leader of Hezbollah in the 1980s, when the group claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed more than 300 people, and the U.S. Marines barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.
The militant group members were in a meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed, Israel’s military said.
Lebanese troops cordoned off the area, preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered bodies from under the rubble. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.
The Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.
The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-story building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it. The missiles destroyed the first building and cut through the basement of the second where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
In a nearby building, shops were badly damaged including one that sold clothes and had a sign in English that read: “DRESS LIKE YOU’RE ALREADY FAMOUS.”
Bilal Hussein / AP
The White House earlier warned both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah against “escalation of any kind” following this week’s synchronized pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah members. Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has continued firing back.
At least 37 people – including two children – were killed in the pager and walkie-talkie explosions. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.
The Lebanese health minister said Saturday hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack but CBS News learned that American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon on Tuesday. No specific details about the methods were shared.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.
Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border.
The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
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A flight from Norway to Spain had to make an emergency landing in Denmark after a mouse scampered out of an in-flight meal that was served to a passenger.
The Scandinavian Airlines flight was traveling from Oslo, Norway to Malaga, Spain, CBS News partner BBC News reported.
Passenger Jarle Borrestad told the BBC that he was seated next to the woman whose food the mouse was in. As she opened the boxed meal, the mouse scurried out, he said.
He said he pulled his socks over his pant legs so that the mouse did not crawl up, but stressed that people stayed very calm and “were not stressed at all.”
Airline spokesperson Oystein Schmidt told AFP that the emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark was in line with company procedures, since mice and other rodents can pose a safety risk. Airlines usually have strict restrictions about rodents on board, since they can chew through electrical wiring, the BBC reported.
“This is something that happens extremely rarely,” Schmidt told the AFP.
Schmidt also said suppliers of in-flight meals will be reviewed “to ensure this does not happen again.”
Passengers were transferred to a different aircraft to resume their journey to Spain. Borrestad told the BBC that the delay added only a few hours to the trip.
Prescription weight loss drugs have become so popular in the United States that suppliers have struggled to keep up. Jean Readdy, a retired teacher living in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, is among the one in eight Americans who have tried a GLP-1 drug for weight loss or diabetes, more commonly known by brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Readdy, who has struggled with her weight for most of her life, told CBS News her weight affected her self-esteem and how she moved through the world.
“I didn’t like going out places,” Readdy admitted.
She reached her highest weight last October, right as her son was about to be married.
“I was embarrassed for him and I was embarrassed for myself,” said Readdy.
Now, she’s one of a growing number of people turning to compounded drugs: reformulated versions the FDA has permitted pharmacies to distribute during an ongoing shortage of brand-name drugs.
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Readdy’s decision to switch from a name brand to a compounded drug came down to price and availability. Paying $1,200 a month for the name-brand drug Zepbound wasn’t sustainable, and it was becoming impossible to find, she said.
And she’s not alone.
Readdy turned to online communities where thousands of people shared resources and where to find the drugs in short supply. On a Reddit forum, she read about the side effects, learned about alternatives, and eventually came across a spreadsheet with dozens of telehealth providers for prescription drugs used for weight loss. After weighing the risks and calling dozens of pharmacies, she eventually found one that provided her with injectable tirzepatide, the same active ingredient found in Zepbound. Readdy now pays $399 a month for her compounded medication.
CBS News identified more than 100 companies advertising access to tirzepatide or semaglutide, both active ingredients in name-brand GLP-1 drugs that regulate insulin and suppress appetite.
LegitScript, an organization that monitors and certifies online businesses, said it saw a 94% increase in companies applying for its healthcare certification since 2023. More than half of its recent applicants had a weight-loss focus on their website.
However, compounded drugs aren’t reviewed for efficacy and safety by the FDA.
“There is not a tremendous amount of oversight,” said CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder. “There is a wide range in terms of the quality and the risks.”
Researchers who ordered and tested compounded semaglutide found some were contaminated and others contained more of the active ingredient than advertised.
Compounded drugs typically come with a needle and a vial, rather than a pre-filled pen, as the brand-name medications do. This can make them harder to administer and lead to potential dosing errors. The FDA issued warnings about administering the proper dosage of the drugs and the risks of using compounded semaglutide.
Still, many of the telehealth companies advertising compounded weight-loss drugs present them as the same as or “generic” versions of the brand-name medications. Nearly a quarter of the websites that CBS News identified did not disclose the drugs they were advertising were compounded.
There is no FDA-approved generic version of brand-name weight loss drugs since pharmaceutical companies still hold patents on the medications. Some of the companies falsely claimed the drugs were FDA-approved. A few even allowed direct purchases without the required prescription.
The FDA is working closely with drugmakers and may restrict the manufacturing of compounded drugs as more versions of approved drugs come off the shortage list.
Last month, Eli Lilly announced it would reduce the cost of the lowest dose of its drug Zepbound to around $400 a month. It also launched its own telehealth company, LillyDirect.
Readdy, who has lost more than 50 pounds, said she intends to continue using her compounded medication.
“We’re very afraid actually that the drug is gonna be taken away,” she said. “I think it’s a miracle drug.”
