Top commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force killed in south Lebanon strike

The Israel Defense Forces late Thursday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in southern Lebanon, the military and the terror group said.

According to the IDF, Ali Jaafar Maatouk, also known as Habib Maatouk, was an operations officer in the Radwan force’s Hajjar regional unit.

The Hajjar unit is responsible for attacks on northern Israel’s Ramim Ridge region, an area that has come under repeated rocket, missile, and explosive-laden drone fire amid the war against the Hamas terror group in the south.

Security sources told Reuters that Maatouk had replaced another commander in the Radwan unit, Ali Ahmed Hussein, who was killed in an Israeli strike in April.

Another operations officer in the same Radwan unit, along with several more Hezbollah operatives, were killed in the same strike on Thursday night, in the southern Lebanon town of Jmaijmeh, the IDF said.

The airstrike had targeted a three-story house in Jmaijmeh.

The IDF said the commanders and operatives carried out numerous attacks against Israel.

A separate strike targeted a Hezbollah command room in the nearby town of Majdal Selm, the IDF said. Fighter jets also struck a building used by the terror group in Shaqra, the military added.

Hezbollah announced the death of Maatouk, but did not detail his rank or role in the terror group.

Also Thursday evening, two suspected drones that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon were shot down by air defenses, the IDF said.

Additional sirens had sounded over fears of falling shrapnel following the interceptions.

Earlier Thursday, a Hamas commander and another Hezbollah operative were killed in separate strikes in Lebanon.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 369 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 67 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.

Israel has warned that it can no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence along its border, with tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes in the north due to the rocket and drone attacks, and has warned that, should a diplomatic solution not be reached, it will turn to military action to push Hezbollah northward.

While the political leadership has not yet made a decision on launching an offensive in Lebanon and turning the Gaza Strip into the secondary front, the IDF has said it continues to target Hezbollah commanders who were behind attacks on Israel.

Source » msn.com