The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has launched drone strikes against the headquarters of the Israeli military’s Northern Command in response to the regime’s assassinations of top Hamas and Hezbollah officials.
Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday that it targeted “the Zionist enemy’s Northern Command Center in the city of Safad with several drones” on Tuesday as part of its response to the targeted killings.
Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri was killed on January 2 in a “treacherous Zionist strike” on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, the Gaza-based resistance movement announced on its official channel.
Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq called it a “cowardly assassination.”
Arouri was a senior official in Hamas’ politburo and was known to be deeply involved in its military affairs. He had previously headed the group’s presence in the occupied West Bank.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that top Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil was assassinated by an Israeli drone about 10:15 a.m. local time (0815 GMT) on Monday on the road to al-Dabshah in the town of Khirbet Selm in the Bint Jbeil district.
Tawil, 58, was reportedly the deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah said he joined the group in 1989 and that he participated in several “qualitative” operations against Israeli forces during the occupation of southern Lebanon before 2000 and suffered serious wounds during an attack in 1999.
Lebanese MP: Zionist regime caught in downward spiral
Meanwhile, a Lebanese lawmaker says there is hard evidence that the Israeli regime is deep in crises and caught in a downward spiral to its own unavoidable demise.
Mohammad Raad, head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc – the political wing of the Hezbollah resistance movement – in the Lebanese parliament, made the remarks as he addressed participants in a ceremony held in commemoration of several Hezbollah members killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
Raad stated that Israel is degenerating despite the substantial Western support it receives, emphasizing that the regime’s authorities are confused, have no plan to accomplish their declared objectives for Gaza, and are fear-mongering against Lebanon through the notion of Gaza war spillover.
“The Zionist enemy threatens to launch a massive war. The regime resorts to military options once it fails to achieve its goals, satisfy its demands and accommodate its illusions.
“Through such threats, Zionists intend to force the population living in southern Lebanon to immigrate,” the Lebanese politician argued.
Raad noted that Western delegations are visiting Lebanon hoping to convince Hezbollah not to take any escalatory measures.
“We do not want to expand the scope of the war, but we want the Gaza aggression to stop. We would not welcome any negotiations before Israel stops its onslaught on the Palestinian territory.
“If the delegations can’t pressure Israel into stopping its atrocities against Gazans, there is no point in their visit to Beirut then. I told some of the European delegates that we reserve the right to protect our society,” the lawmaker said.
The Israeli regime launched its devastating war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The Israeli military has also been carrying out attacks against the Lebanese territory since then, prompting retaliatory strikes from Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.
The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed at least 22,853 people, most of them women and children. More than 58,000 individuals have also been wounded.
