Another commander of the Shiite militia Hezbollah has been killed in a suspected Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon. Talib Abdallah and three other Hezbollah members were killed in the attack on Wednesday night, according to Lebanese security sources. Abdallah is one of the highest-ranking casualties in the militia’s ranks since the killing of commander Wissam al-Tauil in January.
The Israeli army initially provided no information about the incident in the town of Juwaya, which is about 30 kilometers from the Israeli border.
The targeted airstrike was followed by massive attacks from Lebanon on northern Israel. The military announced that around 160 missiles had been fired from the neighboring country. Some of them were intercepted by missile defenses, others had hit several places in northern Israel. Several fires had broken out. The police announced that all of the missiles had landed in uninhabited areas. There were no reports of injuries. According to media reports, the rocket attacks reached as far as Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.
Hezbollah sources said Abdallah’s death was “a great loss for the movement.” He was to be buried in southern Beirut, where Hezbollah has a particularly strong influence. It was the first time since Al-Tauil’s killing almost half a year ago that Hezbollah spoke of the killing of a “commander.”
The militia published photos of Abdallah and Al-Tauil together, as well as a photo of Abdallah with the powerful Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani, who was killed in Iraq in a US drone strike in 2020. The Shiite militia is closely allied with Iran. Abdallah is said to have been a close confidant of Soleimani and responsible for Hezbollah’s armed operations in central and southern Lebanon.
The killing of Abdallah could escalate the conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. The situation in southern Lebanon is “moving towards escalation,” Lebanese security circles said. Concern is growing there because Israel is increasingly attacking targets in the country’s interior.