- Author, Hugo Bachega and David Gritten
- Role, BBC News
- Report by Beirut and London
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Hezbollah said one of its top commanders was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, as the Iran-backed armed group responded with a barrage of rockets against Israel.
Mohammed Nimah Nasser is the latest senior Hezbollah official to be targeted by Israel in nearly nine months of cross-border violence that has raised fears of all-out war.
Hezbollah said it launched 100 rockets and missiles at Israeli military positions “as part of the response to the assassination.” The Israeli military said several projectiles that landed in open areas sparked fires, but no injuries were reported.
The military said Nasser commanded Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, which is responsible for launching rockets from southwest Lebanon, and accused him of directing a “large number of terrorist attacks.”
He also describes him as the “counterpart” of Taleb Sami Abdullah, the commander of another unit whose assassination last month prompted Hezbollah to launch more than 200 rockets and missiles into northern Israel in a single day.
Since then, there have been numerous diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, with the UN and the United States warning of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a war that could also involve Iran and other allied groups.
There have been almost daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the day after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7.
Hezbollah said it was acting in support of the Palestinian group, which is also backed by Iran. Both groups are considered terrorist organizations by Israel, the United Kingdom and other countries.
In recent weeks, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that they would use military force to restore security along the northern border if diplomacy fails.
“We are hitting Hezbollah very hard every day and we will be ready to take any necessary action in Lebanon or reach an agreement from a position of strength,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday. “We prefer an agreement, but if reality forces us to do so, we will know how to fight.”
Hezbollah, heavily armed and long seen as a far superior foe to Hamas, has said it does not want open war with Israel and will observe any ceasefire in Gaza in Lebanon.
“Israel can decide what it wants: a limited war, a total war, a partial war,” the group’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “But it must expect that our response and our resistance will not be limited to the limits and rules of engagement that Israel has set.”
So far, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, the vast majority Hezbollah fighters, and 25 people in Israel, mostly soldiers.
Tens of thousands of people from communities on both sides of the border have also been displaced.
