Israel killed a top commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a security source told AFP on Monday, adding to fears the conflict in Gaza could spread.
Hezbollah later announced the killing of a “commander” for the first time, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil. It said he died “on the road to Jerusalem” – the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.
Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, the security official said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
The official added that the commander, who held several other top positions in the group, “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.
Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since the group and Israel began exchanging near-daily cross-border fire after the Israel-Gaza war broke out on October 7.
Hezbollah has been carrying attacks on Israeli military posts along the border since October 8, a day after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 250 as hostages and triggering the devastating war in Gaza.
Could the Israel-Gaza war become multi-front involving Iran and Hezbollah?
Could the Israel-Gaza war become multi-front involving Iran and Hezbollah?
Israel has carried out airstrikes on the Lebanese side of the border, killing at least 151 Hezbollah members.
But the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Beirut last week has raised fears of a wider conflagration.
Saleh al-Aruri, who was killed in a missile strike widely attributed to Israel, was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the war, in the first attack on Beirut since fighting began.
On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met a Hezbollah political official in Beirut as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Gaza conflict.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Additional reporting by Associated Press