A Lebanese security official announced this Monday, January 8, the death of a key Hezbollah military leader. He attributes his death to an “Israeli attack.”
A key military leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli attack on his car in southern Lebanon on Monday, January 8th.
That military leader, who “played a leading role in directing military operations in the south,” was killed “by an Israeli attack” in the village of Kherbet Selm, about 10 kilometers from the border with Israel, a Lebanese official said on condition to remain anonymous.
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.
Increased tensions
This raid comes amid fears of a regional conflagration, particularly after the deaths of Hamas' number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and six other movement leaders and executives in an attack attributed to Israel on January 2.
The attack targeted a Palestinian formation office in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the stronghold of Hezbollah, which fired dozens of rockets in retaliation at a military base in northern Israel on Saturday.
On Saturday, EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said in Beirut that Lebanon should not be “drawn into a regional conflict.”
“It is absolutely necessary to prevent regional escalation in the Middle East, it is absolutely necessary to prevent Lebanon from being drawn into a regional conflict,” said Borrell, who met with a Hezbollah official.
According to an AFP count, the violence in Lebanon has claimed more than 180 lives, including more than 135 Hezbollah fighters but also more than 20 civilians. According to Israeli authorities, nine soldiers and five civilians were killed in northern Israel.