Attack on Hezbollah One of the two deadly strikes as Lebanon PM is under pressure to dismantle the armed groups.
The commander-in-chief of the armed wings of the Lebanese Party, Al Jamaa Al Islamia, was killed in an Israeli drone attack in Lebanon.
The attack on Hussein Atwi’s car south of Beirut was one of two deadly strikes launched by Israel on Tuesday. The strike was part of a continuous wave of violations from both sides of the border of the ceasefire agreement that struck between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last November, putting a flare-up of hostilities at risk.
Lebanon’s civil defense confirmed that “Israeli drones targeted the vehicle” near the coastal town of Damur, about 20 km (12.5 miles) south of Beirut, and rescuers retrieved the man’s body from the vehicle.
Al Jamaa al-Islamiya, an alliance with Hamas with Hezbollah, a Palestinian Iran-linked group, confirmed Atwi’s death and called him an “academic leader and university professor.”
The AFP news agency cited an unknown security official and said Atowi is the leader of the Al Fajr army, the armed wing of Al Jamaa al-Islamiya.
Separately, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said another Israeli attack on the southern Tire district also killed one person.
‘delicate’
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has argued responsibility for multiple attacks against Israel during more than a year of cross-border hostilities, including a two-month full-scale war in which thousands of people were killed in Lebanon in Israel’s air raids before the November ceasefire contract was struck.
Under the armistice, Lebanon’s powerful political and military force, Hezbollah, retreated fighter jets from south of the Ritani River, about 27km (17 miles) north of the Israeli border, dismantling the remaining military infrastructure.
Israel was to withdraw all its troops from South Lebanon. However, it maintains the military in five positions that it considers “strategic.”
It pointed out the continued sporadic rocket fires across the border to justify the ongoing attack. On Sunday, it said it killed two senior Hezbollah members on a strike.
The UN said last week that Israeli forces have killed at least 71 civilians in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Lebanon says it is trying to fulfill its obligation to disarm Hezbollah and other groups, and is trying to take away military control of the southern region.
After an unclaimed rocket fire against Israel in late March, Lebanese troops arrested several Lebanese and Palestinian suspects last week, but security officials said they included three Hamas members.
However, the US is putting sustained pressure on Beirut to accelerate the process of disarming Hezbollah.
It announced that Lebanon President Joseph Aung would like to complete the process by the end of 2025, but he insisted on Sunday that he was not in a hurry, warning that dismantling the group was a “subtle and sensitive issue.”
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