A senior military official from the pro-Iran Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Monday amid fears of a regional conflagration, a Lebanese security official told AFP.
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The man “played a leading role in directing military operations in the south,” from where Lebanon's Hezbollah has been carrying out almost daily attacks against Israel for three months, responding with bombings, said this official, who requested anonymity.
He was killed by “an Israeli attack on his car in the village of Kherbet Selm,” about 10 kilometers from the border with Israel, he added.
In the afternoon, Hezbollah announced the death of “Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil,” who was killed in combat.
This is the highest-ranking Hezbollah military official killed since this powerful formation opened the front line with Israel in support of the Palestinian Hamas, its ally.
The group posted several photos of Wissam Tawil online, including one next to Qassem Soleimani, the former architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East who was killed in an American strike in Iraq in January 2020.
He also appears with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and Imad Moghnieh, a senior military official who was killed in Damascus in 2008.
Another photo shows him with Moustapha Badreddine, another Shiite party military official killed in 2016 and described as the “mastermind” of the attack on former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Hezbollah praised, among other things, its participation in the capture of Israeli soldiers who began the war against Israel in the summer of 2006, but also the “specific operations it carried out in Syria.”
The group also clarified that it has carried out “numerous operations” against Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanese border since October 7, 2023.
“Prolong the conflict”
“We (…) express our most sincere condolences to the Lebanese people, the brothers of the Islamic resistance and the leaders of Hezbollah on the martyrdom of Commander Wissam Tawil, who (…) was killed while carrying out his jihadist duty.” Support for Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.
The raid comes after the deaths of Hamas' number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and six other officials and leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement in an attack attributed to Israel on January 2.
The attack targeted an office of the movement in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the stronghold of Hezbollah, which said it fired 62 rockets in retaliation at a military base in northern Israel on Saturday.
“The escalation of the aggression of the Zionist enemy and the attacks on resistance leaders in various areas will not deter the resistance forces,” Hamas added on Monday evening.
In a press release, Iranian diplomacy spokesman Nasser Kanani strongly condemned the attack on the military leader of the pro-Iranian party and warned against “the Zionist regime's efforts (…) aimed at expanding the scope of the attack .” Conflict in the region.
Mr. Kanani condemned Israel's resort to “blatant terrorist operations,” which he said resulted from “the severe blows inflicted on it on the ground, including in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.”
Diplomatic pressure
The attack on the Hamas office, the first outside southern Lebanon, stoked fears of an expansion of the war between Hamas and Israel into the Gaza Strip.
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, continues on Monday his regional tour, the aim of which, among other things, is to prevent escalation and, in particular, to ensure that tensions between Israel and Hezbollah do not spiral out of control, according to American officials.
On Saturday, EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said in Beirut that Lebanon should not be “drawn into a regional conflict.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7 that killed around 1,140 people. The Israeli offensive has left more than 23,000 dead in the Gaza Strip.
Since the violence began, Hezbollah has lost more than 135 fighters in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
According to an AFP count, more than twenty civilians also died, including three journalists.
One of the deadliest attacks on November 23 targeted a house containing six fighters, all of whom were killed, including two leaders of al-Radwan Force, Hezbollah's elite force, and the bloc's son, who had a parliamentary education completed.
According to Israeli authorities, nine soldiers and five civilians were killed in northern Israel.