Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group confirmed in the early hours of Saturday that its top military commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed, calling him "one of its top leaders", without providing further details on his killing.

As tensions remained high Friday between Hezbollah and Israel, international leaders called for both sides to seek paths to de-escalate the conflict.

Hezbollah said that a second senior commander was among 16 fighters killed, highlighting the scale of the blow to its military leadership.