The latest:
Two senior Hezbollah commanders were killed in Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Saturday, the Israeli military said, after a booby-trapped drone wounded three soldiers at Ali Taher Heights. Defense Minister Israel Katz said no account on any front would be left unsettled, and pledged to defend soldiers and civilians. Lebanese media reported further overnight air raids and artillery fire.
Details:
- The trigger: The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah detonated around 2:30 a.m. near troops of the Yahalom combat engineering unit at Ali Taher Heights. An officer and two fighters were hospitalized at Rambam; two were described as seriously wounded and one moderately.
- The commanders: The military identified one of the dead as Ali Mohammed Fakhreddine, also known as Abu Hassan Alaa, described as a senior figure in Hezbollah’s Badr division, which covers territory north of the Litani. He was killed in a strike on Deir al-Zahrani, where Lebanese media reported two people killed.
- The second strike: The military said Ali Samir al-Hajj Hassan, a battalion commander in the elite Radwan force, was killed in a strike on a Hezbollah headquarters in Ansar, along with other operatives it said were advancing attacks on Israeli forces in the security zone.
- Civilian deaths: The military confirmed women and children were killed, saying they were relatives of the targeted commander. It said Hezbollah deliberately placed civilians in the military compound and that the family was not the target of the strike.
- Netanyahu’s office: In an unusual English-language statement, the prime minister’s office said Hezbollah violated the Lebanon ceasefire by attacking soldiers in the security zone protecting Israeli communities, and that Israel struck the Hezbollah command that ordered the attack.
- Beirut’s response: President Joseph Aoun condemned what he called continuing Israeli attacks and repeated violations of the framework agreement and of international law protecting civilians, saying the strikes were a clear message about the negotiating process. He did not threaten to withdraw from the talks.
- Israel’s warning: Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, who heads Israel’s negotiating team, said obstructing the talks is exactly what Hezbollah wants, and that using the incident to delay them would hand the enemies of peace a tactical victory.
- Israel’s framing: Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman told Agence France-Presse that Israel wants new, more ambitious US-sponsored talks, and expressed hope the Lebanese Armed Forces would step in so that Hezbollah could be pushed out.
- Hezbollah’s line: Hezbollah said the Israeli strikes would meet an appropriate response and urged Lebanese authorities to halt what it called humiliating negotiations with Israel. It was not a party to the framework and has rejected calls to disarm.
- Lebanese assessment: A Lebanese political source said Hezbollah is looking for an opportunity to derail the direct negotiations between Jerusalem and Beirut.
Background:
Israel and Lebanon announced a US-mediated framework on June 26, six days after a fragile truce took effect. It maps an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament, plus steps toward a final peace deal between two states still technically at war.
Between the lines:
Both sides are reading the same strikes in opposite directions: Aoun calls them a message aimed at the talks, while Israeli officials cast any Lebanese pullback as a Hezbollah win. With Hezbollah outside the framework, rejecting disarmament and urging Beirut to quit, each attack-and-retaliation cycle tests whether the Lebanese state can sustain negotiations it does not fully control.
What’s next
The next round of US-sponsored talks is expected in Rome early next month. Watch whether Beirut attends, whether Hezbollah delivers the response it promised, and whether the Lebanese Armed Forces take on any role in the security zone.
