Haytham Ali Tabatabai was said to be second-in-command of the Lebanese militant group<\/p>\n
An Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sunday has killed a senior commander in the militant movement Hezbollah.
\nHaytham Ali Tabatabai, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Ali Tabatabai, was struck in the Haret Hreik district, a stronghold of Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital. Both Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed his death. According to Lebanon\u2019s Health Ministry, the attack killed at least five people and injured 28 others.
\nTabatabai joined Hezbollah as a teenager after its formation during Israel\u2019s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He was one of the few long-serving commanders to survive Israel\u2019s targeted-killing campaign last year.
\nHezbollah is among the Iran-backed forces opposing Israel\u2019s regional dominance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the strike, calling it part of Israel\u2019s ongoing efforts to destroy the group, which it accuses of terrorism.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Israel opens a new front: War with Hezbollah is back on the table<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not for nothing that the US put a bounty of five million dollars on his head,\u201d Netanyahu said on X, referring to the reward the US issued in 2016, a year after Tabatabai escaped an earlier Israeli assassination attempt.
\nIsraeli officials said Tabatabai served as the group\u2019s \u201csecond-in-command\u201d within its current military hierarchy. Hezbollah referred to him as a \u201cgreat commander.\u201d
\nNetanyahu claimed Tabatabai had been overseeing Hezbollah\u2019s rearmament efforts as the organization worked to rebuild its capabilities following a string of setbacks by Israel, including the detonation of booby-trapped pagers last year that Israeli intelligence previously infiltrated into the movement\u2019s supply channels. He argued that dismantling the organization would enable \u201ca better future\u2026 for every citizen in Lebanon.\u201d
\nLebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the latest attack, calling on the international community to \u201cassume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haytham Ali Tabatabai was said to be second-in-command of the Lebanese militant group An Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sunday has killed a senior commander in the militant movement Hezbollah.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t