An Israeli operation over southern Lebanon killed a senior commander on Tuesday Hezbollahaccording to both the Israeli army and the terrorist group backed by Iran.
In a statement announcing his death, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the terrorist commander as Sami Taleb Abdullah.
Abdullah commanded the Nasr unit of Hezbollah, one of the three regional divisions of southern Lebanon. The unit is responsible for the region between the Mount Dov and the area of Bint Jbeil.
According to the IDF, it is the Highest-ranking Hezbollah commander that has struck down since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, which has fueled violence on the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Abdullah was behind numerous attacks against northern Israel in the last eight months, mainly against the city of Kiryat Shmonaand other cities and army positions in the Galilee Panhandle, the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights area.
The IDF also considers him a “source of knowledge” with many years of experience in the terrorist group. Abdullah participated in a 2005 kidnapping attempt in Ghajar and, in the 2006 Lebanon war, he was the commander of the Bint Jbeil area.
The army published images of the attack, which reached the town of Jouaiyya15 kilometers from the Israeli border, and in which three other Hezbollah terrorists died.
Hezbollah also confirmed the death of Sami Abdullahalso know as Abu Talebborn in 1969. The group called on its followers to attend Abdullah’s funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut, describing him as “one of the knights of the resistance.”
Hezbollah media outlets published a photograph of Abdullah next to Wissam Tawilanother senior commander killed in an Israeli airstrike in January.
The group later announced the death of a second fighter, who a source close to the Shiite terrorist group identified as Mohammad Hussein Sabraalso know as Baqer.
The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar described the attack that killed Abdullah as “a hard blow” for the group.
His death “represents a…dangerous escalation by the enemy,” raising “expectations that the confrontation will be handled differently,” the paper states.
Hezbollah fired successive volleys of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesdayafter having fired 50 rockets at the Golan Heights on Tuesday.
Hezbollah claimed to have launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” against three bases and a barracks in northern Israel.
The terrorist group claimed that it had also attacked a “military factory” with guided missiles “in response to the assassination perpetrated by the Zionist enemy.”
The Israeli army said that More than 150 “projectiles” had been fired from Lebanon in three successive volleys.
“A few moments ago, approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon,” he said, adding that several were intercepted but others hit inside Israel, causing fires in parts of the north.
The initial volley was followed by a second of about 70 projectiles and a third of about 10, the army added.
In response, The army attacked a rocket launcher in southern Lebanon and “four terrorist infrastructures from which projectiles were fired into northern Israel.”
As temperatures have soared in recent days, exchanges of gunfire have caused multiple bush fires on both sides of the border.
“Israel Fire and Rescue Services are currently operating to extinguish the fires that occurred as a result of the launches,” the military said.
The Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom said that There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire almost daily with the Israeli army since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering the war in Gaza.
More than eight months of cross-border violence have killed at least 468 people in Lebanon, most of them combatants but also 89 civilians, according to a tally. AFP.
Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border since violence erupted the day after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel.
Last week, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was “prepared for a very intense operation” along the border with Lebanon and that “one way or another, we will restore security in the north.”
The October 7 attack killed 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 37,164 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
