South Lebanon: Ali Abed Elhassen Naim, senior Hezbollah official, eliminated by Israeli drone

An Israeli drone bombed a vehicle in a suburb of Tire in southern Lebanon on Friday morning, killing its occupant, a senior Hezbollah official, Israeli media reported, citing Lebanese sources. At noon, Hezbollah officially announced that it was Ali Abed Elhassen Naim, the head of the organization’s Southern Command responsible for the terrorist group’s rocket production. Shortly after Hezbollah’s official announcement, the Israeli military issued a statement confirming that it was behind its elimination. Ali Abed Elhassen Naim is also a mining and explosives engineer and is responsible for coordination between Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militias located on the Lebanese-Syrian border and on the Israeli Golan border, according to sources in Lebanon.

Shortly after the announcement that the terrorist had been eliminated, Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in retaliation. Less than an hour later, an Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite terrorist group launched drones toward Israel, triggering an alert in at least ten Israeli localities located not far from the border with the northern neighbor.

Over the past week, Israeli forces have carried out numerous strikes in southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah terrorists and their infrastructure used to attack Israel. In a more rare development, IDF warplanes bombed the northeastern Lebanese town of Zboud on Tuesday, in the deepest attack on Lebanese territory since the start of the war sparked by deadly attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7.