Hezbollah operative killed in strike on car near Tyre — IDF
Lebanese media says target, Muhammad Shuweikh, was also school principal; military says it recently conducted several overnight raids in southern Lebanon
A Hezbollah operative was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning, amid ramped-up military operations aimed at preventing the Hezbollah terror group from rearming.
The strike, near the village of Mansouri, south of Tyre — just over 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Israeli border — killed Muhammad Ali Shuweikh, who the military said served as Hezbollah’s local representative in the village.
As part of his role, he was responsible for liaising between the terror group and the residents “on economic and military matters,” the IDF said.
“Additionally, the terrorist acted to seize private property for terror purposes,” the military said, adding that his actions “constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
The Lebanese health ministry confirmed that the strike “resulted in the martyrdom of a citizen.”
Lebanon’s National News Agency identified the Shuweikh as a school principal in Mansouri.
Shuweikh was also identified as a Hezbollah member in a “martyr poster” that circulated online after his death.
Earlier on Sunday, the IDF said it had conducted several recent overnight raids in southern Lebanon as part of its efforts to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.
In one raid in the southern Lebanon town of Aitaroun, the military said reservists of the Alon Brigade demolished several buildings that had been used by Hezbollah, including recently to restore its capabilities in the area.
In another raid in the town of Ramyeh, the IDF said troops of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade seized and destroyed several weapons, including assault rifles.
Also in the past week, the Israeli Air Force carried out five strikes in Lebanon, killing three members of the terror group who, according to the IDF, were violating the terms of a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
The ceasefire last November sought to end more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war, between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under the terms of the truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but has insisted on maintaining troops in five areas it deems to be of strategic importance.
It has also kept up regular strikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets breaching the ceasefire, arguing that under the terms of the ceasefire, it has the right to strike at threats to Israel’s security.
At the same time, Hezbollah was required to vacate southern Lebanon and disarm, while allowing the Lebanese Armed Forces to deploy across the region.
But Israeli officials say Hezbollah is accelerating efforts to re-arm from properties in the south and further north, and accuse the Lebanese army of failing to confront it.
Hezbollah was greatly weakened in its most recent war with Israel, which started when the terror group started firing missiles at the Jewish state on October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas terror group, which then ruled Gaza, launched its own attack on Israel, triggering the war in the Strip.
After nearly a year of daily skirmishes, Israel launched massive airstrikes and a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon in September 2024. A ceasefire was declared two months later, with Hezbollah left severely weakened.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.