Israel kills top Hezbollah commander in attack on Lebanon’s capital

Hezbollah has confirmed that its top military commander Haitham Ali Tabatabai has been killed in an Israeli air strike on Lebanon’s capital.

Tabatabai, the chief of staff of the group’s armed wing, was among at least five people killed in the attack on an apartment block in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in southern Beirut on Sunday.
In a statement, Hezbollah said “the great commander” Tabatabai was killed in “a treacherous Israeli attack on the Haret Hreik area in the southern suburbs of Beirut”, without specifying his position within the group.

Tabatabai is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of a November 2024 ceasefire aimed at ending over a year of hostilities between the two.

The Israeli military said it “eliminated” Tabatabai in the strike, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier said he was the target of the attack. Israeli media said it was the military’s third attempt to kill him since last year’s war.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati had earlier said that Israel’s strike crossed a “red line” and that the group’s leadership was considering whether it would respond.

“The strike on the southern suburbs today opens the door to an escalation of assaults all over Lebanon,” he said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the Israeli attack also wounded 28 people.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that two missiles were fired at the apartment building on al-Arid Street in Haret Hreik, and significant damage was inflicted on cars and surrounding buildings.
‘Means of exerting pressure’
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to intervene firmly to stop the Israeli attacks on the country.
In a statement earlier on Sunday, Aoun said Lebanon “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”.

“I believe that Tabatabai was the one reorganising Hezbollah’s military leadership, and the targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut is an indication that the Lebanese state has no guarantees against the expansion of such attacks,” Souhaib Jawher, a nonresident fellow at the Alternative Policy Institute, earlier told Al Jazeera.