Hezbollah says a commander has been killed in an attack in southern Lebanon
Hezbollah said on Monday that one of its commanders was killed in an attack in southern Lebanon, raising concerns about a wider regional war as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza.
In a statement, Hezbollah identified the commander as Wissam Hassan Al-Tawil but provided few additional details. A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Mr. Al-Tawil was a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, which Israel says wants to infiltrate the northern border. The official said he was killed in an attack in Khirbet Selm, a village in southern Lebanon about 15 kilometers from the Israeli border.
Israel did not immediately comment on the attack.
A day earlier, the Israeli army said it had killed at least seven Hezbollah members in attacks aimed at destroying the Radwan unit, and that it was ready to attack more of them. Hezbollah’s positions. The ongoing cross-border skirmishes have fueled concerns of a broader regional war.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi said his forces were determined to put pressure on Hezbollah and that if these efforts fell short, Israel was prepared to wage “a new war.”
“We will create a completely different reality, or we will have a new war,” he said said on Sunday.
Hezbollah attacks damaged an Israeli military base on Saturday, one of the group’s largest attacks on Israel in months of back-and-forth attacks across the border. The powerful Lebanese militia has pledged support to Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, and has been involved in small-scale attacks on Israel’s border since the war began three months ago. In recent days, the country has stepped up attacks on Israel in response to the killing last week of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon.
The rocket fire at the base, the Northern Air Control Unit on Mount Meron, left significant damage, according to Israeli news media reports, but the facility is still in operation “and has been reinforced with additional systems,” according to Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli army, said this on Sunday.
The clashes have heightened concerns that the war between Israel and Hamas could develop into a broader regional conflict. In solidarity with Hamas, the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has attacked ships in the Red Sea and launched missiles at Israel. The United States has struck targets in Iraq, while Israel is believed to have carried out targeted assassinations in Syria and Lebanon.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated in recent weeks that there are only two options to restore calm to the conflict with Hezbollah: a diplomatic solution that would move Radwan forces further from the border, north of the Litani River; or, failing that, a major Israeli military offensive aimed at achieving the same goal.
Rest, they say, is a prerequisite for some 80,000 Israelis evacuated from the area to return to their homes. A similar number of Lebanese have fled their homes on the other side of the border.
“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a completely unnecessary war,” Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, told reporters on Monday.
“We are now at a fork in the road,” he added. “Either Hezbollah withdraws, hopefully as part of a diplomatic solution, or we push the country away.”
The Biden administration has called for a deal that would remove Hezbollah forces from the border, but with little apparent progress. Although Israeli officials have said time for a diplomatic deal is running out, analysts say Israel is wary of a significant expansion of the conflict with Hezbollah, with the army still engaged in intense fighting in Gaza.