Hezbollah trainer said killed in reported Israeli strike
Hajji Hassan Mansour to be buried Tuesday as details on attack remain unclear
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
A Hezbollah field trainer was killed in Monday night’s reported strike by Israeli jets on targets on the Lebanon-Syria border, according to Lebanese media.
Hajji Hassan Mansour, also known as Abu Haitham, was set to be buried Tuesday afternoon in his hometown of Ansar in the Nabatieh district, NOW Lebanon reported.
Israel bombarded a Hezbollah stronghold twice on Monday night, killing several Hezbollah operatives, Lebanese and other Arab media reported.
Lebanon’s Daily Star reported overnight Monday that the strikes targeted a weapons shipment meant for Hezbollah. Citing unconfirmed reports, Al Arabiya said the strikes were on a moving convoy carrying ballistic missiles from Syria to Lebanon, to be put to use by the Shi’ite organization.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the target was a Hezbollah “missile base.”
“Two Israeli raids hit a Hezbollah target on the border of Lebanon and Syria,” a Lebanese security source told AFP on Monday.
Residents of Nabi Sheet, on the Lebanese side of the border, told AFP they saw flare bombs light up the sky ahead of the raids, which shook their houses.
However, Jaafar al-Musawi, head of Nabi Sheet Municipality, told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV there was no airstrike on the town. “We heard warplanes followed by explosions; it could be along the border with Syria,” he said.
Residents in neighboring areas said they heard planes flying low before the raids.
Late Monday, Lebanese media reported two Israeli air raids on targets in the Bekaa Valley, a known Hezbollah stronghold bordering Syria.
A correspondent for the Lebanese state news agency in Baalbek reported intensive Israeli flights “at very low altitude” over the mountains. Nabi Sheet itself is a bastion of Hezbollah, which is helping the Syrian regime battle insurgents. The Shi’ite group has a suspected weapons store and training camp there.
The Hezbollah television station Al-Manar said there had been “no raid on Lebanese territory,” reporting only the “strong presence of enemy planes over the area north of Bekaa” in eastern Lebanon.
A Lebanese army spokesman said they had no indication of any airstrikes in the area, but that they were investigating the reports.
