Israel targets senior Hezbollah official in first strike on Beirut in months

HARET HREIK, Lebanon — Israel’s military says it has killed senior Hezbollah militant Haytham Tabtabai in its strike in Beirut on Sunday.

The military in a statement described Tabtabai as the Iran-backed militant group’s chief of staff. Hezbollah did not immediately comment. Tabtabai had led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit.

In 2016, the United States designated Tabtabai as a terrorist, calling him a military leader who led Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen, and it offered up to $5 million for information about him..

The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Hezbollah said the strike, launched almost exactly a year after a ceasefire ended that Israel-Hezbollah war, threatened an escalation of attacks — just days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon on his first foreign trip.

“We will continue to act forcefully to prevent any threat to the residents of the north and the state of Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian did not say whether Israel informed the U.S. before the strike, saying only that “Israel makes decisions independently.”

Israel did not issue an evacuation warning before the strike, and did not name the person targeted. Bedrosian said the Hezbollah chief of staff “led the strengthening and arming of the terrorist organization.”

Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told journalists that a high-ranking militant may have been killed but did not give details.

“Hezbollah’s leadership is studying the matter of response and will take the appropriate decision,” Qamati said at the site of the attack. “The strike on the southern suburbs today opens the door to an escalation of assaults all over Lebanon.”

Israeli airstrikes over southern Lebanon have intensified in recent weeks while Israel and the United States have pressured Lebanon to disarm the powerful militant group. Israel asserts that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government, which has approved its military’s plan that would disarm Hezbollah, has denied those claims.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun in a statement condemned Sunday’s strike and accused Israel of refusing to implement its end of the ceasefire agreement. He called on the international community to “intervene with strength and seriousness to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.”

Smoke could be seen in the busy Haret Hreik neighborhood. A video circulated on social media showed dozens of people crowded around the area of the strike, which appeared to be on the fourth floor of an apartment building. Gunshots could be heard to disperse crowds as emergency workers arrived.

“This is definitely a civilian area and void of any military presence, especially the neighborhood where we stand,” Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar told reporters near the site.

An Israeli drone was flying near the building targeted. The Lebanese military cordoned off the area, the state-run National News Agency reported.

“They want to take our weapons. But our weapons will not be taken,” said Maryam Assaf, who lives nearby and heard the strike. She said it “only gives us more determination, strength, and dignity.”

Lebanon and United Nations peacekeepers have been critical of ongoing Israel attacks in the country and accuse Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement.

Aoun last week said the country is ready to enter negotiations with Israel to stop its airstrikes and to withdraw from five hilltop points it occupies on Lebanese territory. It was unclear if Israel would agree.

Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam say they are committed to disarming all non-state actors in the country, including Hezbollah.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, as Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon last year that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.

That war was the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades. It killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

On Tuesday, an Israeli strike killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern city of Sidon in the deadliest attack since the ceasefire went into effect. The military said it targeted a military facility belonging to the Palestinian Hamas militant group. Hamas denied it has any military facilities in the crowded camp.