Hezbollah official among five killed in Israeli strike on house in south Lebanon

At least five people, including a Hezbollah official, were killed in an Israeli strike on a three-story house in Jmaijmeh in south Lebanon on Thursday.

Filed commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan forces, Habib Maatouk, had replaced another commander in the elite unit who was killed earlier this year in an Israeli strike, security sources said.

Maatouk was killed in one of several strikes on the neighboring border villages of Safad El Batikh and Jmaijmeh, the latest senior member of the group to be killed in months of tit-for-tat fighting with Israel.

After the strikes, 18 wounded people arrived in nearby Tebnin government hospital, two in critical condition, hospital director Mohammed Hamadi said.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hezbollah announced a “support front” with Palestinians shortly after its ally Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, triggering Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

The fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 100 civilians and more than 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to a Reuters tally, and led to levels of destruction in Lebanese border towns and villages not seen since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.