The IDF on Tuesday said it assassinated a top Hezbollah commander, Ismail Yousef Baz, in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre, Lebanon. Baz was a senior and veteran official in Hezbollah’s military wing, holding several positions, including commander of the coastal region. He was involved in planning and advancing rocket and anti-tank missile launches towards Israel from Lebanon.

The airstrike that killed Baz came after Hezbollah launched two attack drones at northern Israel, injuring three people.  The IDF confirmed that the two explosive-laden drones struck areas near the northern community of Beit Hillel, with Hezbollah claiming to have targeted an Iron Dome battery in the area. However, the IDF has dismissed similar claims in the past as empty boasts.

Hezbollah announced Baz’s death, saying he was killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes. The group did not refer to him as a commander.

The IDF has said that more than 30 Hezbollah commanders have been killed in its strikes in the past six months, including six officers with a rank equivalent to a brigade commander.

Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities. The skirmishes on the border have resulted in eight civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists.

Hezbollah has named 275 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 53 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 60 civilians have been killed.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)