An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed a field commander of Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah group early Monday morning and the United Nations issued a call for an end to the violence, Israeli media reported.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire on Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the war in Gaza, heightening fears of a possible spillover of the regional conflict.
Israeli fighter jets struck the village of al-Sultaniyah on Monday morning and killed Hezbollah’s elite field commander Radwan and two others, the Israeli military and two Lebanese security sources said.
The Israeli military named the commander as Ali Ahmed Hassin and said he was responsible for planning and executing attacks against Israelis. Hezbollah issued a funeral notice for Hassin, but without details of his role.
Over the past six months, Israeli strikes have killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters as well as about 50 civilians, including children, medics and journalists. Hezbollah rocket attacks have killed about a dozen Israeli soldiers and half as many civilians.
The shelling has displaced tens of thousands of people on each side, and farms in southern Lebanon have been particularly hard hit, with bombed fields left unplanted or unharvested.
In a joint statement on Monday, Joanna Wronecka, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, and Aroldo Lazaro, commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said the violence must stop immediately. She added:
The unrelenting cycle of strikes and counterstrikes in breach of the cessation of hostilities constitute the most serious violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 since its adoption in 2006.
That UN decision ended the months-long war between Hezbollah and Israel nearly two decades ago, but many of its points, including the withdrawal of armed groups from the south and the deployment of Lebanese army troops, have never been implemented.
