Hezbollah: Commander killed in Israeli attack in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed one of its commanders in an attack in southern Lebanon, raising fears of an escalation of the conflict on another Israeli front.

Commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was among the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon killed by Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza and heightened tensions along Israel’s northern border.

Abdallah’s role in Hezbollah was not immediately clear. But the group has not referred to a dead fighter as a “commander” since January, when Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, a commander in the group’s Radwan unit, was killed in an attack. In an apparent sign of Abdallah’s seniority, Hezbollah released a photo of him next to al-Tawil on Tuesday.

The Israeli military initially made no comment on the attack.

Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese militia and political movement backed by Iran, and Israel have been bombing each other across the border for the past eight months, forcing more than 150,000 people on both sides of the border to flee their homes. But the intensity of the attacks has increased this month as Israeli politicians at the highest levels have threatened further military action.

Israel has targeted Hezbollah commanders in an effort to push the group back north of Lebanon’s Litani River. The goal is to prevent attacks across the border and eventually allow Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes. Some experts are skeptical that the targeted killings will achieve this goal.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened “very drastic measures” to “restore security in the north” during a visit to northern Israel after a Hezbollah rocket attack sparked forest fires that lasted for days.

In a sign of the escalation of the conflict, Israel this week advanced deeper into northeast Lebanon than at any time since the start of the Gaza war. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired around 50 rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has begun targeting Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defense system for the first time.

In response to Hamas’s call to open a second front a day after its deadly attack on Israel, Hezbollah began attacks on Israel on October 8. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group was trying to pin down Israeli troops along the border and limit their ability to attack Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

According to Hezbollah, more than 300 fighters were killed in the latest round of fighting with Israel. The United Nations says around 80 Lebanese civilians were killed. In Israel, according to the authorities, 19 security forces and at least eight civilians were killed.

Euan Ward And Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed to the reporting.