Senior Hezbollah commander reportedly killed by Israeli strike as tensions rise in Lebanon

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions between the two sides continue to boil, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press.

The strike near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent escalating clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military from spiralling into an all-out war that could possibly lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

A Hezbollah statement identified the killed commander as Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by his nom de guerre, “Abu Naameh.” A Hezbollah official, speaking anonymously in line with regulations, said he was head of the group’s Aziz Unit, one of three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.

Naameh is the most senior official from the Iran-backed group killed since Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike June 11. In a speech honouring Abdullah, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he played a pivotal role on the front line since clashes began on Oct. 8, leading the Nasr Unit.

Hezbollah said that in response to the killing of Nasser, it launched Falaq rockets with heavy warheads targeting the headquarters of the Israeli military’s 769th Brigade in Kiryat Shmona, as well as 100 salvoes of Katyusha rockets targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 210th division and the Kilaa air base in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

The group also shared footage of Nasser taking part in what they said was an operation at an Israeli military outpost in southern Lebanon in 1999, back when it was under occupation.

In a video circulated by local media, residents rushed toward a charred vehicle with a large plume of smoke. Civil Defence said its first responders transported an unnamed wounded person to a hospital.

The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, saying that Nasser, alongside Abdullah, are “two of the most significant Hezbollah” militants in southern Lebanon. It said Nasser led attacks from southwestern Lebanon.

Hezbollah launched rockets on northern Israel a day after a Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, leading to limited clashes along the tense border. The attacks have since gradually escalated, with Hezbollah introducing new weapons in their attacks and Israel striking deeper into Lebanon.

The group maintains that it will stop its attacks once there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Until then, it says it will continue the attacks to pile pressure on Israel and the international community. Israeli officials have threatened to launch a larger military operation should Hezbollah not stop its attacks.

Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Israel cannot expect the group’s attacks to remain limited should it launch a military operation within Lebanon, even if it aims to keep the conflict below the threshold of all-out war. Allies, including thousands of Iran-backed militiamen in Iraq, have offered to join Hezbollah on the front lines.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since October have killed more than 450 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the tense frontier have also been displaced.

Senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, who has been shuttling between Lebanon and Israel, is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Wednesday, as part of his ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

French officials had invited Hochstein to the French capital to discuss the latest developments in their ongoing diplomatic scrambles, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.