Death toll rises to 31 in Israeli military attack in Lebanon

Atleast 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.

According to reports,23 people  were missing.

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.

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 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.