(Beirut) A senior military official of pro-Iranian Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday in southern Lebanon, amid fears of a regional conflagration, a Lebanese security official told AFP.
The man “played a leading role in directing military operations in the south”, from where Lebanese Hezbollah has been carrying out almost daily attacks against Israel for three months, said this official who requested anonymity.
He was killed by “an Israeli strike which targeted his car in the village of Kherbet Selm”, about ten kilometers from the border with Israel, he added.
In the afternoon, Hezbollah announced the death of “Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil”, killed in combat.
This is the highest-ranking Hezbollah military official killed since this powerful formation opened the front with Israel to support Palestinian Hamas, its ally.
The raid comes after the death of Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and six other leaders and executives of the movement in a strike attributed to Israel on January 2.
The strike targeted an office of the Palestinian formation in the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of Hezbollah, which announced that it had launched 62 rockets in retaliation on Saturday at a military base in northern Israel.
Diplomatic pressures
The strike on the Hamas office, the first beyond southern Lebanon, fueled fears of an extension of the conflict into the Gaza Strip.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken continues a regional tour on Monday, one of the objectives of which is to avoid an escalation and in particular that tensions between Israel and Hezbollah do not spiral out of control, according to American officials.
On Saturday in Beirut, the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, for his part declared that Lebanon should not be “dragged into a regional conflict”.
“It is imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East,” said Mr. Borrell, who met with a Hezbollah official.
Hezbollah claims to be acting to support Hamas, its ally which controls the Gaza Strip, where the war has entered its fourth month.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7, which killed around 1,140 people. The Israeli offensive left 23,084 dead in Gaza.
Since the start of the violence, Hezbollah has lost more than 135 fighters in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
More than twenty civilians also died, including three journalists, according to an AFP count.
One of the deadliest strikes on November 23 targeted a house in which there were six fighters who were all killed, including two leaders of the al-Radwan force, the elite unit of Hezbollah, and the son of the bloc parliamentary training.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and five civilians were killed, according to Israeli authorities.