An Israeli airstrike in Beirut has killed a senior Hezbollah commander along with several others, according to Lebanese and Hezbollah sources, as Israel intensifies its campaign against the group’s leadership.
Two sources told AFP that Youssef Hashem, described as a top Hezbollah commander responsible for the group’s military affairs in Iraq, was killed in a strike on Wednesday, April 1, while attending a meeting in a tent in the Lebanese capital. Israel’s military identified Hashem as Hezbollah’s commander for its south Lebanon front.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike killed seven people, while Hezbollah confirmed that another member, Mohammad Baqir al-Naboulsi, also died in the attack on the Jnah area of Beirut.
A source close to Hezbollah said Hashem is “the highest-ranking official to be targeted since the start of the war”. The strike triggered large explosions across Beirut, with smoke seen rising over Jnah, a densely populated district known for its residential buildings, cafes and shops.
Hassan Jalwan, a local resident, said he heard “big explosions” overnight. “Nobody knows what’s happening,” he said, adding that “displaced people have been sleeping in the open” across the area.
The latest escalation comes amid a widening conflict that drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East war in early March, after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel following a US-Israeli strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel has since responded with extensive airstrikes and a ground offensive across Lebanon. Lebanese authorities say more than one million people have been displaced by the fighting.
Elsewhere, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khaldeh, south of Beirut, killed two people and wounded three late on Tuesday, according to the health ministry. An AFP correspondent at the scene reported a charred vehicle and paramedics evacuating a wounded person.
A Lebanese military source said troops had withdrawn from some towns while remaining in others. “Where there is an Israeli incursion or advance, we evacuate,” the source said. “Because… there is a possibility of a direct targeting of the Lebanese army… and even if there is no direct targeting, there is a risk the army could be encircled.”
The source added that Israeli forces had advanced up to 10 kilometres in some areas. Hezbollah said its fighters were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli troops in the southern Lebanese town of Shamaa and claimed responsibility for cross-border rocket attacks. Air raid sirens were reported across northern Israel’s Galilee region following what Israeli media described as a barrage of more than 40 rockets.
Israeli forces have reported casualties in recent days, while Lebanese authorities say the conflict has killed more than 1,200 people since it began.
