A SENIOR Hezbollah commander was assassinated in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon.
Israel accused Wissam al-Tawi, a leader in the Radwan force, of masterminding the weekend strike on an IDF base.
Hezbollah commander Jawad al-Tawil was killed in an Israeli strike
The moment the terror leader’s car erupts into flames after being hit
The Israeli hit job targeted the terror boss’ car in the border town of Hirbat Salem in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah later confirmed that al-Tawil had been killed in the attack.
“This is a very painful strike [for Hezbollah],” a security source said.
Another said, “things will flare up now.”
A Lebanese security official revealed that the eliminated target had “a leading role in directing the operations in southern Lebanon.”
Israeli officials have now confirmed they were behind the strike on al-Tawil.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
Another 19 have been killed in Syria.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon.
“Whoever thinks of war with us – in one word, he will regret it,” Nasrallah said.
On Saturday, Iran-backed Hezbollah launched a barrage of rocket attacks into northern Israel in retaliation for the targeted killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri.
The Lebanese terror group said it had fired 62 rockets on an IDF base in Meron – one of its largest bombardments in recent months.
Hezbollah said the strike was “in the framework of the initial response to the assassination of the senior leader Saleh al-Arouri and his martyr brothers.”
Arouri was killed earlier this week in a surgical strike in Lebanon.
Only last week, another senior Hezbollah leader, Hussein Yazbek, was killed in an Israeli air strike which hit a building in Naqoura city.
Since Israel declared war on Hamas following the bloody October 7 massacres, Hezbollah has repeatedly threatened to open up new fronts in the conflict.
So far, this has been restrained to daily border skirmishes – forcing a sizeable chunk of the Israeli army to be pinned down on its northern border.
The group has been pounding Israeli military positions with missiles, mortar fire and suicide drones, while Israel has retaliated with warplanes, helicopters and targeted missile strikes.
The Lebanese terror group along with Yemen’s Houthi rebels are part of Iran’s self-styled “Axis of Resistance” against Israel that have been striking both Israeli and US targets in “solidarity” with Hamas.
Hezbollah has a terrifyingly strong military and political grip on Lebanon and has already fought a devastating war against Israel in 2006 that claimed 1,200 lives.
It has become one of the most heavily armed, non-state groups in the world thanks to decades of Iranian backing.