IDF says weekend strikes killed two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military on Sunday said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, marking the second targeted strike in a weekend of escalating exchanges along the border.
The commander, Abu Hassan Alaa, was killed in a strike in the Deir ez-Zahrani area, the IDF said. Alaa led Hezbollah's Bader Unit and was responsible for attacks against Israeli troops operating in the region, the military said.
The announcement came a day after the IDF said it killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, in a strike on a Hezbollah headquarters near the town of Ansar.
The IDF said both operations were launched in response to an incident over the weekend in which three Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded.
In the earlier strike, Hassan's family members were present inside the headquarters, the IDF acknowledged. The military stressed they were not the objective of the attack and accused Hassan of using them as human shields.
“The strike was specifically directed at Hassan, who was a lawful target under international law,” the IDF said. “The terrorist used his family as human shields, hiding alongside them inside the military headquarters.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said it had not known at the outset that civilians were inside the compound. It accused Hezbollah of deliberately placing its civilians in military facilities in order to frame Israel for attacks on non-combatants.
“Hezbollah is willing to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the IDF clearly did not,” the PMO said.
The twin strikes underscore Israel’s continued focus on dismantling Hezbollah’s command structure in southern Lebanon, even as fears grow that the conflict could spill into a broader regional war. Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hezbollah of embedding its military operations inside civilian areas, a practice that international law considers a violation of the principle of distinction.
Shoshana Baker and Corinne Baum contributed to this report.