As tensions continue to escalate between Israel and Lebanon, a top Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, an official of the militant group said.
The strike took place in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre, The Associated Press reported.
The Hezbollah commander killed in the incident was identified as Mohammad Naameh Nasser, whose nom de guerre was "Abu Namameh". He was the leader of the militant group's Aziz unit, which is one of the three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.
He was the senior most official of the Iran-backed group since the death of Taleb Sami Abdullah in an airstrike in June. Abdullah -- leading the Nasr Unit -- had played a key role on the front line since clashes began on October 8, said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
A video circulated by some local media showed residents rushing towards a charred vehicle, emitting massive smoke plume. Reportedly, the Civil Defense said that its first responders had taken an unnamed person to the hospital.
However, the Israeli forces did not immediately comment on the strike.
Tensions have been raging between both sides since last year, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7. Hezbollah also started launching rockets on Israel a day after, introducing new weapons in their attacks, while Israel also started striking deeper into Lebanon.
Notably, in their response to Hamas' attack, Israeli forces also launched a massive offensive against the militant group in Gaza, striking consistently on the Palestinian regions.
Hezbollah has repeatedly asserted that it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, adding that it will continue its strikes until then to build pressure on Israel and the international community.
The militant group's deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, had on Monday told AP, "If there is a cease-fire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussions."
Kassem said that Hezbollah's participation in Israel's war on Gaza has been as a "support front" for its ally, Hamas, adding that, "if the war stops, this military will no longer exist".
However, he said, if Israel scales back its military operations without a formal ceasefire agreement and full withdrawal from Gaza, the implications for the Lebanon-Israel borer conflict are less clear.
"...We can't answer (how we would react) now, because we don't know its shape, its results, its impacts,” Kassem said.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October have killed over 450 people, most of whom were Hezbollah fighters, but the dead also include over 80 civilians and non-fighters.
Meanwhile in Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed since the war on Gaza began. Several thousands of people on both sides of the tense frontier have been displaced in the nearly 9-month long war.
Last week, the United States, European and Arab mediators continued their efforts to bring calm to the cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon, trying to ensure that the conflict doesn't spiral any further, much less into a wider Middle East war that the world has been fearing for months.
(With AP inputs)
