UPDATE 3 – Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Wassim Saifuldine

BEIRUT (AA) – A Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday amid growing border tensions between the Lebanese group and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah confirmed that Mohamed Naim Nasser, 59, known as Hajj Abu Naim, from the town of Haddatha, was killed.

It did not provide any details about the circumstances of his death, only saying he was killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” in reference to border clashes with Israeli forces.

The Israeli army confirmed that it had killed the Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in the coastal city of Tyre.

A military statement said that Nasser was the commander of Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, one of the group’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon, and was responsible for firing rockets into northern Israel.

According to the army, Nasser was the second most senior Hezbollah commander killed by Israel since the outbreak of cross-border clashes last October.

Last month, the Israeli army killed senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdullah in an airstrike in southern Lebanon.

Media reports earlier said that two people had been injured in an Israeli drone strike in Tyre in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also said another operative, Mohammed Ghassan Khashab, 27, was killed, without specifying the circumstances of his death.

The Lebanese group said that it had shelled with missiles the Israeli posts of Ar-Ramtha and Al-Samaqa in the occupied Kafr Shuba hills in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also claimed to have targeted Israeli spy equipment at al-Malikiyah site and a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Muthalath Al-Tayhat in northern Israel.

Israeli Channel 12 reported that three projectiles were fired from Lebanon into open areas south of the Kiryat Shmona settlement.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that Israeli warplanes flew over Beirut and the city’s southern suburb and several areas in Lebanon, breaching the sound barrier twice.

Tensions have soared along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv pressed ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,900 people since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 359 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in border clashes with Israeli forces since Oct. 8, 2023, according to an Anadolu tally.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio