- The Israeli attack killed senior Hezbollah commander Mohammad Naameh Nasser, the Iran-backed group’s most senior official after Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike on June 11.
- Hezbollah said it fired rockets carrying heavy warheads targeting Israeli military targets in retaliation for Nasser’s killing.
- The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated since the Hamas attack on October 7, and global diplomatic efforts have intensified to avoid a full-blown war between the two.
An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press, as tensions between the two sides escalated.
The attack near the southern coastal city of Tyre came as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent weeks to prevent a growing conflict between Hezbollah and Israeli forces from spiraling into a full-blown war, potentially leading to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.
A Hezbollah statement identified the slain commander as Mohammed Naameh Nasser, who went by the nickname “Abu Naameh,” which was his nickname. He was the head of the group’s Aziz unit, one of three regional divisions, said a Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations. In southern Lebanon,
Nasser is the Iran-backed group’s most senior officer after Taleb Sami Abdullah, who was killed in an airstrike on June 11. In a speech honoring Abdullah, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he had played a key role on the front lines, leading the Nasr Unit since clashes began on October 8.
Hezbollah said that in response to Nasser’s killing, it fired a volley of heavy-duty flak rockets targeting the headquarters of the Israeli army’s 769th Brigade in Kiryat Shmona, as well as 100 Katyusha rockets targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 210th Division and the Qila Air Base in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The group also shared footage of an operation Nasser carried out on an Israeli military outpost in southern Lebanon in 1999, when it was under occupation.
This image shows Hezbollah commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, on July 3, 2024. (Hezbollah Media Relations Office via AP)
In a video broadcast by local media, locals are seen running towards the burnt vehicle with a huge cloud of smoke. The Civil Defence said its first rescue team took an unidentified injured person to hospital.
israeli army Acknowledging the attack, it said Nasser, along with Abdullah, are among the “two most important Hezbollah” militants in southern Lebanon. It said Nasser led the attacks from southwestern Lebanon.
In October, Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel a day after Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel, leading to limited clashes along the tense border. Attacks have gradually increased since then, with Hezbollah using new weapons in its attacks and Israel striking even deeper into Lebanon.
The group says it will stop its attacks once a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip. Until then, it says it will continue its attacks to put pressure on Israel and the international community. Israeli officials have threatened to launch a major military operation if Hezbollah does not stop its attacks.
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday that Israel does not expect the group’s attacks to be limited if it launches a military operation inside Lebanon, even though it aims to keep the conflict below the threshold of a full-blown war. Allies, including thousands of Iran-backed militia in Iraq, have offered to join Hezbollah on the front lines.
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Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 450 people since October, most of them Hezbollah fightersBut the dead also include more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed since the war began in Gaza. The months-long war has displaced thousands of people on both sides of the tense border.
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden who has been shuttling between Lebanon and Israel, is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Wednesday as part of ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
French officials invited Hochstein to the French capital to discuss the latest developments in their ongoing diplomatic turmoil, according to administration officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
