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 strike targeted a movement office in the suburbs of Beirut
The training posted online several photos of Wissam Tawil, including one alongside Qassem Soleimani, former architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East killed in January 2020 by an American strike in Iraq. He also appears with Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, and Imad Moghnieh, a senior military official killed in 2008 in Damascus. Another photo shows him with Moustapha Badreddine, another military official of the Shiite party, killed in 2016 and described as the “mastermind” of the attack against former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The raid comes after the death of Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and six other officials and executives of the Palestinian Islamist movement in a strike attributed to Israel on January 2. The strike targeted an office of the movement in the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of Hezbollah, which announced that it had launched 62 rockets on Saturday in retaliation at a military base in northern Israel.
Fears of an extension of the war between Hamas and Israel
The strike on the Hamas office, the first beyond southern Lebanon, fueled fears of an extension of the war between Hamas and Israel 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 Josep Borrell, who met with a Hezbollah official. Hezbollah says it is acting to support Hamas, which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, where the war has entered its fourth month.
Since the start of the violence, Hezbollah has lost more than 135 fighters in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. More than 20 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.