New Delhi: An Israeli strike killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force in south Lebanon on Monday. The exchange of strikes along the border has raised fears of another Mideast war amid the ongoing fighting in Gaza.
The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force, reported news agency Reuters.
According to security sources, another Hezbollah fighter was also killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm
"This is a very painful strike," one of the security sources told Reuters. Another said, "things will flare up now."
According to the news agency, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas's attack on Israeli territory on October 7. 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.
Meanwhile, Israel has said that it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant group’s October 7 attack that triggered the war.
The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel, including at least 24 believed to have been killed.
In response to the attack, Israel is carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.