A senior Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli drone strike on his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source told CNN on Monday, as fears of a wider regional conflict escalate.
The official, Wissam Tawil, is the most senior member of the Shiite militant group to be killed in an Israeli strike since Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border on October 8, the day after Hamas carried out the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history.
In a statement, Hezbollah also acknowledged the death of Tawil, who also went by the nom de guerre Hajj Jawad, in an Israeli attack. The paramilitary group shared pictures of him alongside other top Hezbollah officials and Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Iranian elite unit that handles the country’s overseas operationswho was killed in a US airstrike four years ago, an apparent indication of Tawil’s stature.
“We are targeting Hezbollah’s people, the infrastructure, the systems they managed to put in place in order to deter Israel,” Katz said.
“We make them pay a price; we did not set a goal to thwart 150,000 missiles. We set a goal to restore security to the residents of the north, to restore security to the residents of the south and to the state of Israel,” the minister said.