Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah official in first strike on Beirut in months

HARET HREIK, Lebanon (AP) – Israel on Sunday struck Lebanon’s capital for the first time since June, saying it killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff Haytham Tabtabai and warning the Iran-backed militant group not to rearm and rebuild a year after their latest war.

The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Hezbollah confirmed Tabtabai’s death. Earlier it said the strike, launched almost exactly a year after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, threatened an escalation of attacks – just days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon on his first foreign trip.

“We will continue to act forcefully to prevent any threat to the residents of the north and the state of Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said. The military instructed residents in northern Israel near the Lebanese border to continue with daily routines, indicating that it did not anticipate a military response from Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Tabtabai of leading Hezbollah’s efforts to rearm.

Israeli airstrikes over southern Lebanon have intensified in recent weeks while Israel and the United States have pressured Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah. Israel asserts that the group is trying to rebuild its military capabilities. The Lebanese government, which supports disarming Hezbollah, has denied those claims. It also says troops have deployed to the south but that its cash-strapped army needs more resources.

Hezbollah has not attacked Israel since the ceasefire began. In December, it fired a couple of rockets that landed on open territory near an Israeli military base and called it a “warning.”

Tabtabai had been the apparent successor of Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed in September 2024 in Israeli attacks that wiped out much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah. Tabtabai also had led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit. In 2016, the U.S. designated him as a terrorist, calling him a military leader who led Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen, and it offered up to $5 million for information about him.

“Hezbollah’s leadership is studying the matter of response and will take the appropriate decision,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told journalists at the scene. “The strike on the southern suburbs today opens the door to an escalation of assaults all over Lebanon.”

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun in a statement condemned the strike and accused Israel of refusing to implement its end of the ceasefire agreement. He called on the international community to “intervene with strength and seriousness to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.”

Israel’s military statement said Israel remains committed to the “understandings” agreed upon by Israel and Lebanon.

Smoke could be seen in the busy Haret Hreik neighborhood, where Israel did not issue an evacuation warning before the strike. The fourth floor of an apartment building was damaged. Gunshots were heard to disperse crowds as emergency workers arrived.

“This is definitely a civilian area and void of any military presence,” Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar told reporters.

An Israeli drone was flying near the building targeted.

“They want to take our weapons. But our weapons will not be taken,” said Maryam Assaf, who lives nearby and heard the strike. She said it “only gives us more determination, strength, and dignity.”

Lebanon’s president last week said the country is ready to enter negotiations with Israel to stop its airstrikes and to withdraw from five hilltop points it occupies on Lebanese territory. He also has said Lebanon is committed to disarming all non-state actors in the country, including Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has said that talk about its military arsenal should come through dialogue with the Lebanese state once Israel stops its attacks.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, as Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon last year that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.

That war was the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades. It killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

On Tuesday, an Israeli strike killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern city of Sidon in the deadliest attack since the ceasefire went into effect. The military said it targeted a military facility belonging to the Palestinian Hamas militant group. Hamas denied it has any military facilities in the crowded camp.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said he was sanctioning 13 army officials who were top commanders on Oct. 7, 2023. Some were censured and others forced into retirement.

Among those punished were the then-heads of military intelligence, the army’s operation branch and the Southern Command, which is responsible for the Gaza Strip. All three men have already resigned. They were removed from reserve duty and told their military careers are over.

Zamir noted the “severe, resounding and systemic failure” to protect Israelis before and during the attack as well as the need to “set a clear standard of command responsibility.”

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky in Jerusalem contributed.