Israeli air strikes in eastern Lebanon last weekend eliminated key operatives in Hezbollah’s missile command, damaging the terror group’s ability to join Iran in a coordinated attack on the Jewish state.
Israel’s military said it had eliminated “several terrorists of Hezbollah’s missile array in three different command centres in the Baalbek area in Lebanon” near the Bekaa Valley.
The strikes were described by one Haaretz commentator as having been carried out with “chilling precision”.
A report in Saudi newspaper Al-Arabiya quoted sources close to Hezbollah who said that the operatives were being directed by officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
Some of the Iranian officers had already been stationed in Lebanon, while others reportedly arrived recently following intensified discussion of a possible US military strike against Iran.
According to the sources, the IRGC officers were not only responsible for restoring Hezbollah’s operational capabilities but were personally overseeing plans and meeting with Hezbollah teams in various regions to issue instructions.
The report said the Iranian officers also met members of the missile unit targeted in Friday’s strike in the Bekaa region.
The IDF described the targeted individuals as senior members of the unit responsible for launching rockets at Israel who had been working to accelerate Hezbollah’s “readiness and force build-up processes” while actively planning attacks on Israeli territory.
The terror group confirmed that at least eight of its members were among the dead, including a senior field commander. He was “Hussein Mohammed Yaghi, known as Abu Ali Sadeq, born in 1984 in the city of Baalbek, who was killed defending Lebanon and its people as a result of an Israeli strike on the Bekaa region,” according to Hezbollah’s statement.
The other operatives killed in the strikes were Qassem Ali Mahdi, Ahmad Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, Hussein Khairallah Alaa al-Din, Ali Zeid al-Moussawi, Mohammed Ibrahim al-Moussawi and Ahmad Mohammed Zeaiter.
Hezbollah’s missile infrastructure forms the backbone of its deterrent capability against Israel. The group, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by countries like the UK and the US, is widely regarded as possessing one of the largest non-state rocket arsenals in the world, much of it supplied or finances by Iran.
Hezbollah’s missile forces would be central to any coordinated assault on Israeli territory. During the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in 2024, Israel’s early targeting of Iranian missile command structures significantly degraded Tehran’s ability to mount sustained retaliation.
Last week’s strikes were among the deadliest in Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire ended 13 months of war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel continues to strike what it says are Hezbollah-linked targets, arguing that the group’s ongoing entrenchment and rearmament violate the ceasefire deal.
The IDF stated it was committed to the ceasefire but that it will “continue to operate against any entrenchment and arming attempts conducted by Hezbollah” and will “act decisively to remove any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Hezbollah maintains that the ceasefire only applies to southern Lebanon, between the Litani River and the Blue Line, and has rejected calls by Lebanese government officials to discuss the future of its weapons in other parts of the country, including the Bekaa Valley.
Hours before the Bekaa strikes, Israel also hit a Hamas “command centre” in the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. Hamas said two of its members were killed.
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