UPDATE - Israeli army says it killed senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon

UPDATES WITH REPORT FROM LEBANON’S OFFICIAL NEWS AGENCY

By Anadolu Staff

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Monday said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon in an airstrike last night.

A military statement said that Israeli warplanes killed Ali Ahmed Hussein, the commander of the Hujair region (Ramim Ridge) in the elite Al-Ridwan Force, in the southern Lebanon town of as-Sultaniyah.

It said that Hussein held a rank equivalent to a brigadier commander.

According to the statement, Hussein was responsible for planning and carrying out attacks in the Ramim region in Upper Galilee against Israel.

He was also responsible for launching rocket attacks on Israeli territory, it said.

The statement further said that the airstrike also resulted in the killing of two other Hezbollah members who were accompanying Hussein.

There has been no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the Israeli army's statement.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said that the Israeli army carried out an overnight airstrike on a house in the town of as-Sultaniyah, killing three people and injuring others. Their identities were not disclosed.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of weapons fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The escalation comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 33,200 Palestinians following Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul