Lebanon’s Hezbollah says commander killed in Israeli strike, adding to fears Gaza war could spread
- Hezbollah said Wissam Hassan Tawil had died ‘on the road to Jerusalem’ – the phrase used by the Shiite Muslim movement for fighters killed by Israel
- The assassination comes as clashes between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified
Israel on Monday killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike on south Lebanon, the Iran-backed group and a security official said, as regional tensions soar amid the Gaza war.
Hezbollah in a statement announced the killing of a “commander” for the first time in three months of cross-border clashes with Israeli forces.
It said Wissam Hassan Tawil had died “on the road to Jerusalem” – the phrase used by the Shiite Muslim movement for fighters killed by Israel.
A security source told Agence France-Presse that Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, near the Israeli border.
The official, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said that the commander, who held several other top positions in the group, “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.
