IDF: Two Hezbollah members killed in southern Lebanon drone strikes
Hamas operatives reportedly arrested by Lebanese army in Palestinian refugee camps, amid exposure by Amman of alleged Muslim Brotherhood terror cell said to have trained in Lebanon
Two Hezbollah members were killed in separate Israeli drone strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, the military said.
The first strike, in southern Lebanon’s Qantara, some seven kilometers from the Israeli border, eliminated a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The second strike targeted another operative in the town of Hanine, some five kilometers from the border.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that one person was killed in the strike on a vehicle in the area of Wadi al-Hujair, near Qantara, and a second was killed in Hanine.
The IDF also said Wednesday that it had struck the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon overnight. Lebanese media had reported a series of strikes near the town of Ramyeh, close to the Israeli border.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry reported Wednesday that a 17-year-old had succumbed to wounds sustained the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon’s Aitaroun. The death brought the toll of that strike to two, after the IDF said a commander in Hezbollah’s special operations unit was killed in the strike.
Under the terms of a November 27 ceasefire, which ended more than 13 months of war, Hezbollah was required to vacate southern Lebanon, while Israel was permitted to act against what it deemed to be imminent threats from the terror group. Israel, which was required to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, has held on to five areas it described as strategic.
The war was sparked when Hezbollah, unprovoked, began launching near-daily attacks on northern Israel on October 8, 2023 — a day after Hamas stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. Israel invaded Lebanon in September in a bid to stop Hezbollah’s attacks, which had displaced some 60,000 northerners.
Hezbollah, whose leadership was decimated in the war, has since lost ground in Lebanon’s domestic politics. In January, the terror group acquiesced to the election of US- and Saudi-backed Lebanese President Joseph Aoun after a two-year vacancy in the post.
Aoun, formerly the commander of Lebanon’s army, has vowed to uphold a state monopoly on arms — a thinly veiled threat to Hezbollah’s extensive arsenal. In an interview published Tuesday by Qatari-owned outlet The New Arab, Aoun said he would directly coordinate with Hezbollah to achieve that goal in 2025.
Lebanese army arrests Hamas operatives
Meanwhile, the Saudi Al-Hadath news outlet reported Tuesday that the Lebanese army had arrested Hamas operatives in Ain al-Hilweh and Nahr al-Bared, Palestinian refugee camps situated, respectively, in north and south Lebanon.
The report, which was not immediately confirmed by the Lebanese army, said that a senior Hamas official had requested a meeting with the head of Lebanon’s military intelligence.
The reason for the arrest was unclear. It came after Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday spoke with Aoun about an alleged yearslong plot by Jordanian members of the Muslim Brotherhood — a Hamas ally and Jordan’s largest opposition group — to attack the Hashemite Kingdom with self-made rockets and drones.
Amman, which on Tuesday announced the arrest of 16 suspects in the case, said they had received training and funding in Lebanon.
AFP contributed to this report.
