An Israeli airstrike killed a key Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest sign of a possibly widening conflict in the Middle East.
A Lebanese security official said the attack on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border with Israel. Hezbollah identified the commander as Wissam al-Tawil, with one security official saying he "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south."
Israel said it military hit Hezbollah targets on Monday but did not comment on Tawi’s death.
Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas' shock October 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since a strike attributed to Israel killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.
Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the war, in the first attack on Beirut since the fighting began.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel last Friday that his fighters would respond swiftly to Arouri's killing. The group claimed an attack on an Israeli air control base the next day.
During the cross-border fighting over the last three months, more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, have been killed, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists have died, according to a tally by the French news agency, Agence France-Presse.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
The attack in Lebanon came as Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza against Hamas militants and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to erase Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip, ending the threat the militant group poses to Israel and freeing what is believed to be 129 hostages still held by Hamas.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people in its October attack on Israel and captured 240 hostages, while the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says Israel’s counteroffensive has already killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, with vast swaths of Gaza left in rubble and 85% of its population of 2.3 million displaced.
Israel said Monday its forces carried out new attacks against Hamas militants in central and southern Gaza, with the new attacks coming as Israeli officials prepared for a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The top U.S. diplomat said he would raise the issues of Israel doing more to prevent civilian casualties from its Gaza operations and of facilitating humanitarian aid deliveries to Palestinian civilians.
Blinken has also expressed concerns about the conflict spreading in the region.
“This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering,” Blinken said Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting as he spoke to a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.
"The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. "I say this to both our enemies and our friends."
Among the thousands killed in the war are, as of Sunday, 79 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The organization said the dead included 72 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.
“CPJ emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties,” Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement.
Al Jazeera urged “the International Criminal Court, governments, human rights organizations and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes” and demanded “an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.”
Israel’s military has not commented on the strike but in a statement on Dec. 16, responding to the death of another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, the army said, "The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists."
Some material for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
