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Sunday, November 23, 2025
Israel increasingly confident that Hezbollah’s military chief was killed in Beirut strike
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israel increasingly believes that Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s de facto military chief, was killed in this afternoon’s airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israeli officials tell the Saudi al-Hadath outlet that the strike was successful and Tabatabai was eliminated, though the IDF has not yet confirmed this with full certainty.
Tabatabai, born in 1968 in Beirut, is the son of a south Lebanese mother and an Iranian father. He was raised in southern Lebanon and joined the terror group in his youth.
He has been wanted by the United States since 2016, with a $5 million bounty for information on him.
Tabatabai previously commanded Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, which was tasked with invading Israel. According to the US Department of State, he also commanded Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen.
In 2015, Israel attempted to assassinate Tabatabai in southern Syria, in a strike that killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah commander killed in Damascus in 2008.
Tabatabai was promoted in the terror group in late 2024, after the IDF eliminated most of Hezbollah’s top leadership.
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