Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) late on July 18 killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in southern Lebanon,
Ali Jaafar Maatouk, also known as Habib Maatouk, was an operations commander in the Radwan force’s Hajjar regional unit, the IDF said in a statement, adding that the unit is responsible for attacks on northern Israel’s Ramim Ridge region, an area that has come under repeated rocket, missile, and suicide drone fire amid the war on the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.
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 fighters, were killed in the same strike which targeted a three-story house in the town of Jmaijmeh, according to the IDF.
A separate strike targeted a Hezbollah command room in the town of Majdal Selm, the IDF said. Fighter jets also struck a building used by the group in Shaqra, it added.
Hezbollah announced the death of Maatouk shortly after the strike on Jmaijmeh, but did not detail his rank or role in the group. The group mourned another member, Mohamad Hassan Mostafa, early on July 19, again without providing any details about him.
Earlier on July 18, a Hamas commander and another Hezbollah official, who was reportedly involved in military operations in the western part of the border region in southern Lebanon, were killed in separate Israeli strikes.
Separately, the IDF announced on July 18 that an Israeli soldier seriously wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on a military base in northern Israel last month has succumbed to his wounds. The reservist was serving in the ranks of the 188th Armored Brigade’s 53rd Battalion.
Hezbollah and its allies have escalated attacks against Israel in support of Gaza in recent weeks. Senior Israeli officials threatened Lebanon with a military operation in response.
So far, the border clashes have resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 500 people have been killed, including 354 fighters of Hezbollah and over 100 civilians.
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