Beirut: A Lebanese security official said on Monday that an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed a senior commander of the militant group Hezbollah.
The assassination comes as clashes between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified.
It comes nearly a week after an Israeli strike killed top official with the militant Palestinian group Hamas in Beirut, and two days after Hezbollah launched a wide-ranging missile attack on an Israeli military base in Mount Meron in north Israel in retaliation.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment about the attack. It said fighter jets have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that Israel struck a commander from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, without giving his name. The strike hit a Honda SUV in the southern village of Khirbet Selm, while he was driving it, the official said.
Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah has been carrying attacks on Israeli military posts along the border since October 8, a day after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 250 as hostages and triggering the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel has carried out airstrikes on the Lebanese side of the border, killing at least 151 Hezbollah members.
