Israeli army kills Hezbollah commanders

As the situation in the Middle East remains tense after Iran's unprecedented weekend attack using drones and missiles against Israel, the Jewish state has dealt a major blow against an ally from Tehran. The Israeli military confirmed on Tuesday that a Hezbollah commander was killed in an attack in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli military plane “removed Ismail Yusuf Baz, the commander of Hezbollah's coastal unit,” the Israeli military announced. According to a source close to the pro-Iranian party, the man was killed in a strike in the village of Ain Bal, about fifteen kilometers from the Israeli border.

Hezbollah confirms Baz's death

Baz “participated in planning to fire rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israel (…)”, as the Israeli military pointed out, which also targeted other Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese National News Agency (ANI) thus reported one death in an Israeli attack on Aïn Baal and without specifying the death toll, an Israeli attack targeting two cars at Chehabiyé, about ten kilometers away.

Hezbollah, for its part, announced the deaths of Paz and two other militants in Israeli strikes without further details. However, in the evening, the Israeli army announced that an airstrike in Kfar Dounine in southern Lebanon killed Mohammed Hussein Moustafa Shechori, who was presented as the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan forces responsible for rockets and missiles in central and western Lebanon, and Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlallah, another fighter of the movement. For its part, Hezbollah's ally, the Shiite Amal Movement, announced the death of one of its fighters in the strike on Aïn Baal.

Many deaths among civilians

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, Hezbollah has carried out daily attacks against Israel in support of its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Movement. The Israeli military retaliated by bombing deeper and deeper into Lebanese territory and conducting targeted attacks against Hezbollah officials.

More than six months of violence left 368 people dead on the Lebanese side, mainly Hezbollah fighters, and 70 civilians. In northern Israel, ten soldiers and eight civilians were killed, according to the military. Tens of thousands of residents had to flee the area on both sides of the border.