IDF kills another senior Hezbollah official in Beirut; fresh barrages target north

Military says Nabil Qaouk was ‘directly involved in advancing terror attacks’; Hezbollah also confirms death of Southern Front commander Ali Karaki in Friday strike on Nasrallah

In this January 26, 2010, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, attends the funeral of prominent businessman Hassan Tajeddine, in the southern village of Hanaway, Lebanon (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
In this January 26, 2010, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, attends the funeral of prominent businessman Hassan Tajeddine, in the southern village of Hanaway, Lebanon (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Senior Hezbollah official Nabil Qaouk was killed in an Israel Defense Forces airstrike on Saturday in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, the military announced on Sunday morning, as it continued its punishing campaign against the Lebanon-based terror group.

According to the IDF, Qaouk was the commander of Hezbollah’s “preventive security unit” and a senior member of the terror group’s central council.

He was considered close to Hezbollah’s leadership “and was directly involved in advancing terror attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens, including in recent days,” the military added.

Qaouk joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and previously served as deputy head and head of the southern Lebanon area in the executive council, as well as deputy head of the executive council.

Also Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed the death of Ali Karaki, the commander of the Southern Front, responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon.

Following the announcement of Karaki’s death, a purported image of the commander circulated on social media.

Karaki was killed alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive IDF strike on Beirut on Friday. He had survived an Israeli assassination attempt earlier last week.

Earlier on Sunday, the IDF said that fighter jets struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight, including rocket launchers aimed at Israel and buildings used by the terror group to store weapons.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 28, 2024. (Joseph Eid/AFP)

Lebanon’s state news agency reported that an Israeli airstrike in northeast Lebanon on Sunday morning killed 11 people, without specifying if any of those killed in the village of al-Ain were members of Hezbollah.

Since Israel escalated its airstrikes on the Hezbollah terror group last week, more than 630 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. At least a quarter of those killed have been women and children, according to Lebanese health officials.

Israel has said that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.

Earlier this month, the security cabinet updated its official goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza to include the objective of allowing residents of the north to return safely to their homes after being displaced by attacks by Hezbollah since October 8.

In order to achieve that goal, the IDF is damaging Hezbollah’s command and control, destroying its capabilities in the border area, and removing the threat of an invasion planned by the terror group’s Radwan Force.

A UNHCR spokesman said on Saturday that the total number of displaced in Lebanon had reached 211,319, including 118,000 just since Israel dramatically ramped up its airstrikes on Monday.

Families carry their belongings in Beirut’s Martyrs’ square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, September 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The remainder had fled their homes since Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks one day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the war in the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday morning, the IDF said a barrage of eight rockets was launched from Lebanon at the Tiberias area, setting off sirens in the city and several other towns near the Sea of Galilee.

According to the IDF, the rockets struck open areas, causing no injuries, while footage shared on social media showed that at least one landed in the Sea of Galilee.

Later on Sunday, a barrage of some 10 rockets was fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, setting off sirens in Afula, Nazareth, and numerous other towns in the Jezreel Valley.

According to the IDF, some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses.

There were no reports of injuries or major damage in the attack.

Also Saturday night, the Jordanian army said that a Grad rocket from southern Lebanon fell in an uninhabited desert area near Muwaqqar, a town southeast of Amman.

No people were hurt in the attack, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Lebanese border, and there was no damage, according to the statement.

Nearby on the Israeli side of the border, the IDF said a missile fired from Lebanon landed in the West Bank near Jerusalem on Saturday night, marking what appeared to be the deepest rocket fire carried out by Hezbollah since intense fighting began earlier this month.

There were also unverified reports on Saturday night of an airstrike near Albukamal on the Iraqi-Syrian border, along with other areas in Styria’s northeastern Deir Ezzor region.

A Syria-based war monitor claimed 12 pro-Iran fighters were killed in airstrikes of unknown origin in eastern Syria, and a large number of people were wounded, with widespread speculation they were carried out by Israel or the US.

“Twelve pro-Iranian fighters were killed in airstrikes of unknown origin targeting their positions in the city of Deir Ezzor and to the east of the city, as well as the Boukamal region, near the border with Iraq,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that five of the strikes targeted military positions near Deir Ezzor airport.

The Observatory, which says it relies on a network of sources on the ground, has been accused of inflating casualty numbers in the past.

Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.

Since Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, which saw some 1,200 people killed in Israel and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.

Agencies contributed to this report. 

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