IDF confirms Hezbollah chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai killed in Beirut strike

The IDF confirms killing Hezbollah’s military chief Haytham Ali Tabatabai in an airstrike in Beirut today, issuing footage of the attack.

In a statement, the IDF says that Tabatabai was a “veteran and central operative in the terror organization” after joining its ranks in the 1980s and holding several senior roles, including the commander of the elite Radwan Force and head of Hezbollah’s operations in Syria.

During the war, the military says Tabatabai was appointed to head Hezbollah’s operations division, responsible for “consolidating the organization’s situational picture and force buildup.”

In late 2024, after most of Hezbollah’s leadership was killed, he “effectively served as the official responsible for managing the fighting against Israel,” the IDF says,

After the end of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, he was officially appointed as military chief of staff in the terror group.

“In this role, he led the organization’s reconstruction,” the military says.

The IDF says that it will “act against any attempts to rebuild and rearm the Hezbollah terror organization and will operate forcefully to remove any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” while adding that it “remains committed to the understandings agreed upon between the State of Israel and Lebanon.”

An Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah’s military chief Haytham Ali Tabatabai in Beirut, November 23, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)