Hezbollah claims top commander killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon

The Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah said Monday that one of its top commanders has been killed in an airstrike. 

The strike on Jawad Al-Taweel – who led the group’s Radwan forces — was carried out by the Israeli military, the Jerusalem Post is reporting, citing Hezbollah and other media outlets. The militant group later confirmed his death on Telegram. 

Al-Taweel was traveling in a car with another Hezbollah fighter in the village of Majdal Selm in southern Lebanon when he was struck, security sources told Reuters. 

“This is a very painful strike,” one of the sources said, while another added that “things will flare up now.” 

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Ongoing cross-border skirmishes between Israel’s military and Hezbollah has left more than 130 of the militant group’s fighters dead since Hamas launched its war against Israel on Oct. 7, the news agency reports. 

Last week, Hezbollah-linked news outlets reported that deputy Hamas leader Saleh Arouri was killed by an Israeli airstrike.  

Al-Mayadeen, a publication linked to Hezbollah, reported that the high-ranking Hamas official was killed in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh on Tuesday. 

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Israeli officials have denied involvement in the strike, but noted the “surgical” precision of the attack. 

“Israel has not taken responsibility for this attack. But whoever did it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state,” Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told MSNBC in the wake of that strike. 

Arouri is among the founders of Hamas’ military wing and has overseen the terrorist group’s operations in the West Bank. 

Days later, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Lebanon would be “exposed” to Israeli attacks if his terrorist group does not respond to Arouri’s death. 

 

In a televised address, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah “cannot be silent about a violation of this level.”  

Fox News’ Yonat Friling, Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.