Israeli drone strike in Lebanon kills senior Hezbollah commander
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Beirut/Jerusalem: A senior military commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli drone strike near Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, on Tuesday, according to a security source.
The source told Xinhua news agency that "an Israeli drone fired an air-to-ground missile at a civilian vehicle ... in (the village of) Qa'qaiyat al-Jisr, killing one person and setting the car ablaze."
The body, transported by civil defence teams to a hospital in Nabatieh, was identified as a Hezbollah military commander named Hassan Kamal Halawi, the unnamed source said.
However, Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre said in a statement that the dead person was "a civilian, according to initial reports."
Meanwhile, the Israeli military confirmed that it launched a drone strike last night in Nabatieh and killed Halawi, whom it identified as chief of Hezbollah's anti-tank unit in southern Lebanon, IANS reported.
The military said in a statement that "Halawi, during the war, was responsible for numerous terror attacks against the State of Israel. He facilitated the movement of operatives and weapons into southern Lebanon," claiming that "in recent months, Halawi continued to engage in terrorist activity against Israeli civilians."
Since November 27, 2024, a US- and French-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel has been in place, ending over a year of hostilities triggered by the war in the Gaza Strip.
Despite the agreement, which requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory, Israeli forces have maintained positions at five key locations along the border beyond the February 18 deadline.
The Israeli military continues to launch intermittent strikes in Lebanon, under repeated claims that such attacks aim to eliminate "threats posed by Hezbollah."