Hezbollah said on Tuesday that Israeli forces killed one of its commanders in an attack in southern Lebanon, stoking concerns about an escalation of the conflict on another Israeli front.
The commander, Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was one of the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon killed by Israel since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip. and stoked 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, commander of the group’s Radwan unit, was killed in an attack. In an apparent indication of Abdallah’s seniority, Hezbollah on Tuesday released a photo of him alongside al-Tawil.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese militia and political movement, and Israel have bombed each other along the border for much of the past eight months, and more than 150,000 people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee. flee from their homes. But the intensity of the attacks has increased this month amid threats from top-level Israeli officials to take further military action.
Israel has been targeting Hezbollah commanders with the goal of pushing the group north of the Litani River in Lebanon, hoping to prevent cross-border attacks and eventually allow Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes. Some experts have expressed skepticism about whether targeted killings can achieve this goal.
Last week, during a visit to northern Israel after a barrage of Hezbollah rockets sparked forest fires that burned for days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened “very intense measures” to “restore security in the north.”
In a sign of the worsening conflict, Israel this week struck deeper into northeastern Lebanon than it has since the war in Gaza began. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired about 50 rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has for the first time begun attacking Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defense system.
Responding to calls from Hamas to open a second front a day after its deadly attack on Israel, Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel on October 8. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said his group is trying to pin down Israeli troops along the border and limit their ability to attack Hamas in Gaza.
Hezbollah says more than 300 fighters have been killed in the most recent round of fighting with Israel. The United Nations says around 80 Lebanese civilians have been killed. In Israel, authorities say 19 security personnel and at least eight civilians have been killed.
Euan Ward and Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed with reports.