Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel continues to hunt down senior members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, with no response from the group that remains committed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States last November.
On May 20, a drone strike targeted a motorcycle near al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon, killing a man who was described by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the town and surrounding areas. Lebanese media said that nine people, including two children were also wounded by the strike.
The commander was involved in advancing numerous attacks on Israel during the war, restoring Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the al-Mansouri area, and smuggling weapons, the military said in a statement.
The next day, May 21, another drone strike hit a vehicle in the town of Ain Baal, also located in southern Lebanon, killing a man.
The IDF later announced that the target of the strike was a Hezbollah engineer named Hussein Nazih Barji with “significant source of knowledge” in the field of weapons production and a history of working in the group’s weapons research and development division.
Barji was “an experienced engineer” in the division and was responsible for “establishing infrastructure for the production of precision missiles,” the military said.
It added that the engineer was targeted to disrupt Hezbollah’s attempts to rearm, and because his actions “constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes against targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and other parts of the country, including the capital Beirut, since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into effect on November 27. Over 140 members of Hezbollah have been killed since then.
In addition, the military ignored the February 18 time limit set by the agreement to withdraw from southern Lebanon by keeping its troops at five strategic posts there.
Hezbollah, which was completely depleted by the confrontation it initiated with the IDF after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, has so far refrained from responding. The group has been facing unprecedented pressure from the Lebanese government to remain committed to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
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