Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in strike in Lebanon

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Monday (Nov 4) it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander whom it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Abu Ali Rida, a Hezbollah commander in the Baraahit region of southern Lebanon, was “liquidated” in an airstrike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.

Rida was “responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank rocket attacks against IDF troops and oversaw Hezbollah terrorist activities in the area,” the military statement said.

Israel has continued to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since war broke out between the two sides in late September.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several militant commanders and senior leaders of the movement, including former leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The war comes after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets almost daily into northern Israel in support of its Gaza ally Hamas.

Israel is waging its deadliest war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas since the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.